Bacterial quorum-sensing signals are inactivated by mammalian cells

摘要

Quorum sensing is a cell-to-cell communication system used by pathogenic bacteria to control expression of virulence factors (1-6). In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, quorum-sensing mutants show reduced virulence (1-3, 7, 8), and, in a recent issue of PNAS, Chun et al (9) reported that human respiratory epithelia have the capacity to inactivate a P. aeruginosa quorum-sensing signal. This capacity appears to be enzymatic in nature, and it functions in some but not all mammalian cells. This finding opens a new area of research and indicates that humans have evolved mechanisms to interfere with a quorum-sensing pathway.