Abstract
Bacterial strains have developed an ability to resist antibiotics via numerous mechanisms. Recently, researchers conducted several studies to identify natural bioactive compounds, particularly secondary metabolites of medicinal plants, such as terpenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic acids, as antibacterial agents. These molecules exert several mechanisms of action at different structural, cellular, and molecular levels, which could make them candidates or lead compounds for developing natural antibiotics. Research findings revealed that these bioactive compounds can inhibit the synthesis of DNA and proteins, block oxidative respiration, increase membrane permeability, and decrease membrane integrity. Furthermore, recent investigations showed that some bacterial strains resist these different mechanisms of antibacterial agents. Researchers demonstrated that this resistance to antibiotics is linked to a microbial cell-to-cell communication system called quorum sensing (QS). Consequently, inhibition of QS or quorum quenching is a promising strategy to not only overcome the resistance problems but also to treat infections. In this respect, various bioactive molecules, including terpenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic acids, exhibit numerous anti-QS mechanisms via the inhibition of auto-inducer releases, sequestration of QS-mediated molecules, and deregulation of QS gene expression. However, clinical applications of these molecules have not been fully covered, which limits their use against infectious diseases. Accordingly, the aim of the present work was to discuss the role of the QS system in bacteria and its involvement in virulence and resistance to antibiotics. In addition, the present review summarizes the most recent and relevant literature pertaining to the anti-quorum sensing of secondary metabolites and its relationship to antibacterial activity.
Highlights
Infectious diseases are a group of pathologies caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses
Data collected and discussed in this review indicate that phenolic acids are characterized by a strong antibacterial activity compared to flavonoids having a large molecular structure
Data collected through this review show that terpenoids, flavonoids, and phenolic acids exhibit numerous mechanisms, such as alteration of cell morphology, disturbance of cell membrane, decreasing membrane permeability, and inhibition of quorum sensing (QS)
Summary
Infectious diseases are a group of pathologies caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses. Bacteria are considered the most implicated pathogens in infectious diseases. Despite the discovery of antibiotics, bacteria have been able to develop resistance against these drugs via different mechanisms. Researchers have been searching for alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Within this context, natural substances, those extracted from medicinal plants, constitute a source of drugs against various pathologies, including diabetes, cancer, inflammation, and pathologies linked to stress and microbial infections [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. The efficacy of these compounds is not significant for therapeutical applications, because some pathogenic strains continue to induce the problem of resistance, which, until recently, remained unrecognized
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