Virulence Factors: An Overview of Un-Explored Therapeutic Options.

() is an opportunistic pathogen gaining increased importance due to its capacity to colonize the respiratory tract of patients with chronic lung diseases such as individuals with Cystic Fibrosis. The actual therapeutic regimen to treat infections is based on repurposed drugs from therapies against and . In addition to the need for new specific drugs against this bacterium, a possible strategy for shortening the therapeutic time and improving the success rate could be targeting virulence factors. These drugs could become an important integration to the actual therapeutic regimen, helping the immune system to fight the infection. Moreover, this strategy applies a low selective pressure on the bacteria, since these elements are not essential for survival but crucial for establishing the infection. This review aims to provide an overview of the 's virulence factors that are poorly studied and mostly unknown, suggesting some interesting alternatives to classical drug development.