Quorum sensing and the population-dependent control of virulence

摘要: One crucial feature of almost all bacterial infections is the need for invading pathogen to reach a critical cell population density sufficient overcome host defences and establish infection. Controlling expression virulence determinants in concert with may therefore confer significant survival advantage on such that overwhelmed before defence response can be fully initiated. Many different pathogens are now known regulate diverse physiological processes including cell-density-dependent manner through cell-cell communication. This phenomenon, which relies interaction diffusible signal molecule (e.g. an N-acylhomoserine lactone) sensor or transcriptional activator couple gene density, has become as 'quorum sensing'. Although size 'quorum' likely highly variable influenced by diffusibility within infected tissues, nevertheless quorum-sensing molecules detected vivo both experimental animal model human infections. Furthermore, certain have been shown possess pharmacological immunomodulatory activity they function per se. As consequence, quorum sensing constitutes novel therapeutic target design small molecular antagonists capable attenuating blockade