Bacteria do have a social life. They talk to each other by releasing simple chemicals. This system is called quorum sensing. When the bacteria are growing in your body and the amount of quorum sensing chemicals reaches a certain level, you begin to feel sick. There are other types of molecules that can block this system and they are called quorum quenching agents (QQAs). We wish to design new drugs that act as QQAs. In this article, we describe how we isolated a new molecule from a marine sponge. This molecule, called plakofuranolactone, works as a QQA.
DID YOU KNOW THAT SOME MEDICINES COME FROM THE SEA?
Sponges, algae, and other marine organisms produce many kinds of molecules. Scientists can use these molecules to design new types of drugs. Our research group studies the molecules produced by sponges that live in the ocean. We hope to use these molecules to make new medicines to fight common diseases or infections caused by bacteria. We usually fight bacterial infections by taking medicines that are antimicrobial compounds, or molecules able to kill microorganisms or stop their growth, also called antibiotics. Antibiotics work by killing the bacteria that infect us and make us feel sick.

License information: CC BY 4.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00031