Sperandio Vanessa
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dept of Microbiology, 5325 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-9048, USA.
Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2007 Apr;5(2):271-6. doi: 10.1586/14787210.5.2.271.
The growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance and the paucity of novel antibiotics underscore the importance of developing novel therapeutics. Bacterial cell-to-cell signaling constitutes a novel drug target. Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell-to-cell signaling mechanism that refers to the ability of bacteria to respond to chemical hormone-like molecules called autoinducers. QS is responsible for controlling a plethora of virulence genes in several bacterial pathogens. Antagonists to autoinducers will intercept bacterial intercellular communication, hindering their ability to act in a coordinated manner to express virulence traits. Moreover, since QS is not involved directly in essential processes, such as bacterial growth, one can reason that inhibition of QS will not yield a selective pressure for the development of resistance.
抗菌耐药性日益严峻的挑战以及新型抗生素的匮乏凸显了开发新型疗法的重要性。细菌细胞间信号传导构成了一个新的药物靶点。群体感应（QS）是一种细胞间信号传导机制，指细菌对称为自诱导物的化学激素样分子作出反应的能力。QS负责控制多种细菌病原体中的大量毒力基因。自诱导物拮抗剂将阻断细菌细胞间通讯，阻碍它们以协调方式表达毒力特征的能力。此外，由于QS不直接参与细菌生长等基本过程，因此可以推断，抑制QS不会产生耐药性发展的选择压力。
