Perspectives
Nature Reviews Microbiology 4, 629-636 (August 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrmicro1464
Opinion: Multidrug-resistance efflux pumps ? not just for resistance
Laura J. V. Piddock1 About the author
Abstract
It is well established that multidrug-resistance efflux pumps encoded by bacteria can confer clinically relevant resistance to antibiotics. It is now understood that these efflux pumps also have a physiological role(s). They can confer resistance to natural substances produced by the host, including bile, hormones and host-defence molecules. In addition, some efflux pumps of the resistance nodulation division (RND) family have been shown to have a role in the colonization and the persistence of bacteria in the host. Here, I present the accumulating evidence that multidrug-resistance efflux pumps have roles in bacterial pathogenicity and propose that these pumps therefore have greater clinical relevance than is usually attributed to them.
Author affiliations
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Laura J. V. Piddock is in the Antimicrobial Agents Research Group, Division of Immunity and Infection, The Medical School, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Email: l.j.v.piddock@bham.ac.uk
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