Authors: Francesco Melfi; Simone Carradori; Noemi Mencarelli; Cristina Campestre; Arianna Granese; Mattia Mori
doi:10.1080/13543776.2024.2327305
ABSTRACT
Introduction
Vibrio cholerae bacteria cause an infection characterized by acute diarrheal illness in the intestine. Cholera is sustained by people swallowing contaminated food or water. Even though symptoms can be mild, if untreated disease becomes severe and life-threatening, especially in low-income countries.
Areas covered
After a description of the most recent literature on the pathophysiology of this infection, we searched for patents and literature articles following the PRISMA guidelines, filtering the results disclosed from 2020 to present. Moreover, some innovative molecular targets (e.g., carbonic anhydrases) and pathways to counteract this rising problem were also discussed in terms of design, structure-activity relationships and structural analyses.
Expert opinion
This review aims to cover and analyze the most recent advances on the new druggable targets and bioactive compounds against this fastidious pathogen, overcoming the use of old antibiotics which currently suffer from high resistance rate.
KEYWORDS:
- Vibrio cholerae
- carbonic anhydrase
- flagellar regulatory hierarchy
- aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase
- biofilm
- IspH
- quorum sensing
Article highlights
- V. cholerae infections are usually treated by an arsenal of old drugs.
- Selective inhibitors of V. cholerae carbonic anhydrases are making a splash.
- New compounds or formulations can target biofilm formation and eradication.
- Aspartate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase is inhibited by heptapeptide inhibitors.
- Tyrosol acetate and tryptophol acetate act as inhibitors of Quorum Sensing in V. cholerae.
Declaration of interests
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
Reviewer disclosures
One reviewers on this manuscript received an honorarium from Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents for their review work but have no other relevant financial relationships to disclose. The remaining reviewers have no other relevant financial relationships or otherwise to disclose.
Authors contribution statement
F.M., C.C., and N.M. searched for the literature, S.C. and A.G. filtered the search results, M.M. analyzed the biological targets in silico. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Additional information
Funding
This research was partially supported by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) grant number FISR2019_04819 BacCAD to S.C. This article is based upon work from COST Action EURESTOP, CA21145, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This research was supported by EU funding within the NextGenerationEU-MUR PNRR Extended Partnership initiative on Emerging Infectious Diseases (Project no. PE00000007, INF-ACT).