Ebselen's antivirulence activity in Clostridium difficile infection is likely due to multiple modes of action, but the contribution of each to its efficacy remains unclear.

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. In bacteria, cellulose confers protection against environmental insults and is a constituent of biofilms typically formed on abiotic surfaces. We report that, surprisingly, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium makes cellulose when inside macrophages. We determine that preventing cellulose synthesis increases virulence, whereas stimulat...

Increasing antibiotic resistance among uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is driving interest in therapeutic targeting of nonconserved virulence factor (VF) genes. The ability to formulate efficacious combinations of antivirulence agents requires an improved understanding of how UPEC deploy these genes. To identify clinically relevant VF combinations, we applied contemporary network analysis...

While antibiotic resistance in bacteria is rapidly increasing, the development of new antibiotics has decreased in recent years. Antivirulence drugs disarming rather than killing pathogens have been proposed to alleviate the problem of resistance inherent to existing biocidal antibiotics. Here, we report a nontoxic biogenic nanomaterial as a novel antivirulence agent to combat bacterial infecti...

Antivirulence drugs disarm rather than kill pathogens and are thought to alleviate the problem of resistance, although there is no evidence to support this notion. Quorum sensing (QS) often controls cooperative virulence factor production and is therefore an attractive antivirulence target, for which inhibitors (QSI) have been developed. We designed a proof-of-principle experiment to investigat...

The impact of phytopathogenic microorganisms in several crops causes significant losses agrifood industry, spoilage throughout food chain and storage. Nanoparticles plant extracts have been highlighted by their antimicrobial properties applied packaging, agriculture, drug delivery systems other medical approaches. Over the past few years, this group studied application ZnO nanoparticles agroind...

Abstract Antivirulence therapy has proven to be an attractive method for the treatment of bacterial infections and venomous injuries; however, approaches neutralizing multiple types virulence through one platform are limited. To address this challenge, we have developed a reactive conjugated polymer, PPV–NHS, which functions as broad-spectrum antidote directly inactivating basic toxins. The ant...

Virulence gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus is tightly regulated by intricate networks of transcriptional regulators and two-component signal transduction systems. There is now an emerging body of evidence to suggest that the blockade of S. aureus virulence gene expression significantly attenuates infection in experimental models. In this Perspective, we will provide insights into medici...

Developing new compounds targeting virulence factors (e.g., inhibition of pilus assembly by pilicides) is a promising approach to combating bacterial infection. A high-throughput screening campaign of a library of 17 500 small molecules identified 2-amino-3-acyl-tetrahydrobenzothiophene derivatives (hits 2 and 3) as novel inhibitors of pili-dependent biofilm formation in a uropathogenic Escheri...