PHYTO-ANTIQUORUMONES: AN HERBAL APPROACH FOR BLOCKING BACTERIAL TRAFFICKING AND PATHOGENESIS

Over centuries, plants are the richest resource of curative drugs as cited in folklore, traditional and modern medicinal systems and are been used as nutraceuticals, functional food supplements and in pharmaceuticals. Phytochemicals have exhibited beneficial effects against human acute and chronic ailments caused due to microbial pathogens. In recent years, phytochemicals and their derivatives have been extensively used as potent antimicrobials in humans and livestock due to their chemical stability, high bioavailability, low-molecular mass, safe consumption without any side-effect as seen in many antibiotic regimes. These phytocompounds have also been highlighted to function as Quorum Sensing Inhibitors (QSI) or antiquorumones in blocking bacterial pathogenesis preventing their regulatory mechanism and expression of specific set of virulence genes or cascades. However, the role of phytochemicals as QSI has been poorly identified but many of which remain unexplored. Therefore, this review summarizes most of the current scientific contributions focused on the use of plant phytochemicals as antiquorumones, highlighting the significance of plant derived molecules as bacterial inhibitors with larger emphasis on the mechanistic action of biofilm formation and quorum signaling networks mainly N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs), autoinducer-2 (AI-2) communications and their attributes in modulating the host immune response. A critical understanding of this complex trio-interaction between humans, microbes and phytochemicals has to be well explored, to exploit the usefulness of these metabolites ultimately paving newer paths for herbal drug discovery and their potential targets leading towards a better quality of life and human welfare.Â