Significance of Quorum Sensing and Biofilm Formation in Medicine and Veterinary Sciences

Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) is a coordination of a group of organisms to exhibit a specific action. It is an acquired social behavior presented to perform either symbiotic or pathogenic activity; however, most of the cases in the absence of QS, the decision to execute certain actions has not been performed. Therefore, QS is also termed as “collective decisions”; it is induced and executed by signaling molecules when the signaling molecule crosses a certain threshold. QS phenomenon is shown by many bacteria and fungi and yeast; recently, viruses also have shown to communicate via QS. In modern research era, study of QS is of most interest for the majority of human healthcare as well as animal health reasons. In general, a key approach perceived is inhibition of QS in case of infections or biofilm formation. Inhibition of QS can reduce the initiation of disease and its severity. Hence, inhibition of QS is of significant interest in human and animal healthcare for developing diagnostic and therapeutic tool. Inhibition of QS is an emerging tool to perform the antimicrobial activity by using targeting agents at either three different levels: production, spread, or acceptance of the signal. The current review primarily emphasizes diverse mechanisms of QS, its inhibition, recent challenges and advances in the field, and its clinical implications in human and animal healthcare.