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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Anti-virulent Disruption of Pathogenic Biofilms using Engineered Quorum-quenching Lactonases
Published on: January 1, 2016
Paraoxonases as potential antibiofilm agents: their relationship with quorum-sensing signals in Gram-negative
Jordi Camps1, Isabel Pujol, Frederic Ballester
1Centre de Recerca Biomédica, Laboratori de Microbiologia, and Laboratori de Referéncia de Catalunya, Hospital Universitari de Sant Joan, Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain. jcamps@grupsagessa.cat
Abstract:
The property of many bacteria to form biofilms constitutes a major health problem. Bacteria living in biofilms have a very high resistance to antibiotics. Biofilms may develop at a certain locations with the participation of secreted molecules, termed quorum-sensing signals, when a sufficient density of bacterial growth occurs. In Gram-negative bacteria, acyl homoserine lactones (AHL) have been identified as major quorum-sensing signals. The paraoxonases (PONs) constitute a family of enzymes comprising 3 members (PON1, PON2, and PON3) that have lactonase activity and are able to hydrolyze AHL. In this minireview, we summarize some existing basic knowledge on PON genetics, biochemistry, and function and describe recent research that reports evidence of the important roles that they may play in the organism's defense against biofilm formation. Finally, we propose some lines of future research that could be very productive.
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