Targeting bacterial virulence

Bacterial virulence factors are attractive therapeutic targets because they do not affect bacterial growth and thus should be under less selective pressure to develop drug resistance. One drawback, however, is that virulence factors are often species-specific and thus unlikely to be useful as broad-spectrum targets.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center now have shown that the virulence target QseC is conserved across multiple types of bacteria, and they have identified a QseC inhibitor that could offer broad-spectrum antibacterial efficacy.¹...