Plant Natural Products Targeting Bacterial Virulence Factors

Abstract

Decreased antimicrobial efficiency has become a global public health issue. The paucity of new antibacterial drugs is evident, and the arsenal against infectious diseases needs to be improved urgently. The selection of plants as a source of prototype compounds is appropriate, since plant species naturally produce a wide range of secondary metabolites that act as a chemical line of defense against microorganisms in the environment. Although traditional approaches to combat microbial infections remain effective, targeting microbial virulence rather than survival seems to be an exciting strategy, since the modulation of virulence factors might lead to a milder evolutionary pressure for the development of resistance. Additionally, anti-infective chemotherapies may be successfully achieved by combining antivirulence and conventional antimicrobials, extending the lifespan of these drugs. This review presents an updated discussion of natural compounds isolated from plants with chemically characterized structures and activity against the major bacterial virulence factors: quorum sensing, bacterial biofilms, bacterial motility, bacterial toxins, bacterial pigments, bacterial enzymes, and bacterial surfactants. Moreover, a critical analysis of the most promising virulence factors is presented, highlighting their potential as targets to attenuate bacterial virulence. The ongoing progress in the field of antivirulence therapy may therefore help to translate this promising concept into real intervention strategies in clinical areas.

Cinnamaldehyde Inhibits Staphylococcus aureus Virulence Factors and Protects against Infection in a Galleria mellonella Model

“…The use of essential oils or other plant-derived material to prevent bacterial adhesion to catheters and other medical devices has been pointed as an interesting approach for the medical field (Silva et al, 2016). These strategies involve the modification of the surface by the incorporation of the anti-adhesive compounds, resulting in functionalized surfaces with improved resistance to microbial colonization (Grumezescu, 2013; Trentin et al, 2015).…”

Thinking Outside the Box—Novel Antibacterials To Tackle the Resistance Crisis

“…[121,184,[187][188][189][190] Al arge number of small molecules have been investigated for their modulation of regulatory pathways and secretion systems.I na ddition, antibodies were specifically raised against toxins to eliminate their devastating function to host cells.A sac onsequence of their sheer number,w es olely discuss selected examples of small-molecule approaches with afocus on the past five years.…”

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“…In general, antibiofilm activity of essential oils is correlated to their property to destabilize the cell membrane due to them being highly lipophilic and small molecule properties. The interaction of the essential oil with the cell wall components can also lead to leakage which lead to cell death [24][25][26] .…”