Paper accepted: “Synthetic homoserine lactone analogues as antagonists of bacterial quorum sensing”

Today, the paper of Xiaofei Qin, who received his doctoral degree already in 2016 from our University, has appeared in the Journal “Bioorganic Chemistry”. Xiaofei had worked in the group of Prof. Francisco Goycoolea, then at our institute, now at the University of Leeds in the UK. He had collaborated with Ganesh Kumar and Prof. R. Balamurugan from the University of Hyderabad. Furthermore, Dr. Ratna Singh, the bioinformatician in our group, had supported his project. Prof. Goycoolea’s group had a keen interest in bacterial quorum sensing and in developing anti-bacterial strategies based on quorum quenching. Xiaofei had analysed a number of natural and synthetic compounds that can act as antagonists of homoserine lactone quorum sensing signals, the latter ones being synthesized by our Indian colleagues. Ratna then performed extensive molecular docking studies to simulate in silico the interaction of these compounds with the bacterial quorum quenching receptor. Comparison of the in vitro and in silico results allowed a molecular understanding of this interaction, as a basis for their further optimization. Giving the increasing failure of available antibiotics due to resistance in the bacterial pathogens and the scarcity of new antibiotics, quorum quenching strategies are a beacon of hope in our fight against infectious diseases in the era of globalization. Promising lead compounds such as the here described quorum quenchers are urgently needed.