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Updated: Aug 24, 2025

Anti-virulent Disruption of Pathogenic Biofilms using Engineered Quorum-quenching Lactonases
Published on: January 1, 2016
Antimicrobial Activity of Lactones
Marcelina Mazur1, Dorota Masłowiec2
1Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Norwida 25, 50-375 Wrocław, Poland.
Abstract:
The development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and the consequent lack of effective therapy is one of the biggest problems in modern medicine. A consequence of these processes is an urgent need to continuously design and develop novel antimicrobial agents. Among the compounds showing antimicrobial potential, lactones are a group to explore. For centuries, their antimicrobial activities have been used in folk medicine. Currently, novel lactone compounds are continuously described in the literature. Some of those structures exhibit high antimicrobial potential and some are an inspiration for design and synthesis of future drugs. This paper describes recent developments on antimicrobial lactones with smaller ring sizes, up to seven membered ε-lactones. Their isolation from natural sources, chemical synthesis, synergistic activity with antibiotics, and effects on quorum sensing are presented herein.
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