Quarum Sensing Medications - A Fascinating Possiblity?

[amox]

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Each bacterial species has its own quorum sensing system to detect when there are enough of that certain species to launch a biological attack against their host.

Application? - When a patient has an infection and the bacteria have been identified, we dose an inhibitor for that quorum sensing receptor. The bacterium therefore loses communication and stops the assault, giving time for antibiotics and host immune cell to win.

Thoughts? Predictions? Any current applications in medicine?
This would give the ability to produce many new drugs, and is an alternative approach tailored to one specific species.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVfmUfr8VPA

 

[joetrisman]

basic science offers lots of things that should work on paper that really never reach fruition. RNAi and bacteriophages for treating human disease come to mind.

 

[hereticmnk]

I read up after seeing the initial post. The clinical applications seem fascinating. Although one wonders if one is immunocompromised, it would be hard to eradicate an infection without using a bactericidal agent. This seems too good to be true.

 

[SeekerofTruth]

What if we make a mistake with quorum sensing and the benign cells get damaged? I don't really see it coming anytime soon but with time anything is possible. I see more hope for nanotechnology right now.

 

[amox]

What if we make a mistake with quorum sensing and the benign cells get damaged? I don't really see it coming anytime soon but with time anything is possible. I see more hope for nanotechnology right now.

Impossible, each species has their own intraspecies communication molecule. This would be the case if we used the universal interspecies quarum sensing molecule antagonist which would harm both normal flora and harmful bacterium.

There may be cross selectivity between antagonists for these receptors, however unless you have a molecular docking lab/systems, this would be hard to analyze.

Please keep sharing thoughts! Feel free to rip it to shreads! Science is about disproving, not proving.

 

[tongiecc]

QS has been around a while, I know some academic med centers use zithromax on cystic fibrosis patients to supposedly avoid super infections by disrupting QS. Not sure if it just ends up being like giving prophylactic ABX, but the dose was low enough it likely wouldn't have been the case.

 

[hereticmnk]

QS has been around a while, I know some academic med centers use zithromax on cystic fibrosis patients to supposedly avoid super infections by disrupting QS. Not sure if it just ends up being like giving prophylactic ABX, but the dose was low enough it likely wouldn't have been the case.

I didn't even know Azith had anti QS activity..

 

[Momus]

basic science offers lots of things that should work on paper that really never reach fruition. RNAi and bacteriophages for treating human disease come to mind.

Right. We are still primitive like monkeys. I'd like to see us ~1000 years from now living in spaceship and interacting with aliens and chit. People never age, there is no cancer, teleportation exists, etc. Or, there would be no need for physical bodies (too limiting). Unfortunately, I will be long gone before that happens. 🙁 or Maybe I just watched too many science fiction movies >_>;

 

[hereticmnk]

Right. We are still primitive like monkeys. I'd like to see us ~1000 years from now living in spaceship and interacting with aliens and chit. People never age, there is no cancer, teleportation exists, etc. Or, there would be no need for physical bodies (too limiting). Unfortunately, I will be long gone before that happens. 🙁 or Maybe I just watched too many science fiction movies >_>;

Yup, sometimes I am pissed off for being born at a time where immortality has not been discovered 🙁