Inibidores do quorum sensing: estratégia de combate à virulência e resistência bacterianas

Quorum sensing é um mecanismo de comunicação celular presente nas bactérias. Através da secreção, acúmulo e detecção de moléculas autoindutoras as células bacterianas são capazes de regular a expressão de fatores de virulência, esporulação e formação de biofilmes. Frente ao cenário mundial de resistência antimicrobiana o bloqueio do quorum sensing passou a ser explorado como alternativa aos antibióticos, mostrando-se eficientes no combate à virulência bacteriana e demonstrando, até o momento, baixo potencial de desenvolvimento de resistência. O objetivo deste trabalho foi discutir os inibidores do quorum sensing de bactérias de relevância clínica através de uma revisão narrativa da literatura

Interference With Quorum-Sensing Signal Biosynthesis as a Promising Therapeutic Strategy Against Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens

Faced with the global health threat of increasing resistance to antibiotics, researchers are exploring interventions that target bacterial virulence factors. Quorum sensing is a particularly attractive target because several bacterial virulence factors are controlled by this mechanism. Furthermore, attacking the quorum-sensing signaling network is less likely to select for resistant strains than using conventional antibiotics. Strategies that focus on the inhibition of quorum-sensing signal production are especially attractive because the enzymes involved are expressed in bacterial cells but are not present in their mammalian counterparts. We review here various approaches that are being taken to interfere with quorum-sensing signal production via the inhibition of autoinducer-2 synthesis, PQS synthesis, peptide autoinducer synthesis, and N-acyl-homoserine lactone synthesis. We expect these approaches will lead to the discovery of new quorum-sensing inhibitors that can help to stem the tide of antibiotic resistance