Paper accepted: Screening of bacterial quorum sensing inhibitors in a Vibrio fischeri LxR-based synthetic fluorescent E. coli biosensor

Today, a paper co-authored by our bioinformatician Dr. Ratna Singh was accepted for publication in the journal ‘Pharmaceuticals’. This manuscript is based on part of the doctoral theses of Xiaofei Qin and Celina Vila-Sanjurjo, performed under the guidance of Prof. Francisco Goycoolea when he was still in Münster. Supported by Prof. Bodo Philipp from our microbiology department, they searched for quorum sensing inhibitors as novel antibacterial agents. Quorum sensing is the language bacteria use to communicate e.g. when attacking a host tissue: only once their numbers are strong enough, they will attack, so that the immune system of the host can be overrun. Interfering with this bacterial communication is potentially a powerful way of preventing disease without forcing the bacteria to quickly develop resistance – such as they do when confronted with antibiotics. With the advent of antibiotics, bacterial diseases had lost their ability to cause pandemics such as the medieval plague. But multi-drug resistant bacteria have by now overcome even our best antibiotics, representing an enormous threat to human health in future. Alternatives will be essential, and quorum sensing inhibitors are a promising option. Our paper supports this quest by combining biochemical and bioinformatics approaches to identify compounds that can interfere with bacterial communication. Let us hope that this approach will eventually yield novel drugs to prevent the comeback of bacterial pandemics.