A research team at the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Biomolecular Sciences has uncovered a new way of inhibiting the toxicity and virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The new discovery concerns the bacterial cells’ ability to ‘talk’ to each other by producing and sensing small chemical signal molecules, called ‘quorum sensing’ (QS). Interfering with the QS signalling process blocks bacterial virulence and renders bacteria unable to cause infection. Consequently QS systems are molecular targets for the development of new anti-infective drugs which do not kill bacteria but instead block their ability to cause disease. The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The full paper was published in PLOS Pathogens.
