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Marine Organisms as Source of Quorum Sensing Inhibitors

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Quorum Sensing vs Quorum Quenching: A Battle with No End in Sight

Abstract

The search for novel anti-infective agents is an important element in combating threat posed by the multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens. Due to slow progress in discovery and registration of novel class of antibiotics, alternate strategies such as blocking cell-cell communication called quorum sensing (QS) is identified as a novel anti-pathogenic drug target. In the recent years, excellent review articles have been published indicating potential of QS inhibitors (QSIs) from natural products including microbes, algae, fungi, as well as plants. However, first discovery of QS inhibitors was reported from marine algae Delisea pulchra, little focus has been given to explore marine organisms and their potential to yield QSIs of therapeutic value. Marine organisms are well known for their contribution to provide thousands of biologically active compounds. In this chapter, we have made an attempt to summarize the reports on the anti-QS properties of marine organisms and the nature of their derived compounds and their future perspectives.

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, India, for awarding INSPIRE fellowship to FMH.

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Correspondence to Iqbal Ahmad .

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Husain, F.M., Ahmad, I. (2015). Marine Organisms as Source of Quorum Sensing Inhibitors. In: Kalia, V. (eds) Quorum Sensing vs Quorum Quenching: A Battle with No End in Sight. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1982-8_21

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