What is it about?
An essential oil compound called geraniol is found to inhibit S. sonnei growth inside host cells. The mechanism involves in inhibition of a bacterial enzyme DsbA, which catalyses disulphide bond formation in glutathione. Glutathione is a tripeptide important in innate defence to bacterial invasion. Failure to convert glutathione to its oxidised form via inhibiting DsbA means effective innate defence in place, hence bacterial are cleared off from host cells. We also described a novel fluorescence-based method for measuring DsbA activity in vivo, which can be popularly used in the future studies.
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Why is it important?
It is important because it offers an alternative means to treat infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Perspectives
We will investigate if geraniol can apply to infections caused by other bacteria, and the potential of synergistically with antibiotics.
Dr Jun Yu
University of Strathclyde
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Geraniol as a novel antivirulence agent against bacillary dysentery-causing Shigella sonnei, Virulence, December 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2017.1412031.
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