Abstract

The emergence and increasing prevalence of bacterial strains that are resistant to available antibiotics demand the discovery of new therapeutic approaches. Targeting bacterial virulence is an alternative approach to antimicrobial therapy that offers promising opportunities to inhibit pathogenesis and its consequences without placing immediate life-or-death pressure on the target bacterium. Certain virulence factors have been shown to be potential targets for drug design and therapeutic intervention, whereas new insights are crucial for exploiting others. Targeting virulence represents a new paradigm to empower the clinician to prevent and treat infectious diseases.

Author affiliations

1. Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
2. Center for Computational Biology and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
3. Sequoia Sciences, Saint Louis, Missouri 63114, USA.

Correspondence to: Scott J. Hultgren¹ Email: hultgren@borcim.wustl.edu

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