Truncated Autoinducing Peptides as Antagonists ofStaphylococcus lugdunensisQuorum Sensing

Competitive quorum sensing (QS) antagonism offers a novel strategy for attenuating current multidrug resistant staphylococcal infections. To this end, a series of 10 truncated analogues based on the parent autoinducing peptides (AIPs) of Staphylococcus lugdunensis (groups I and II) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (groups I–III) were sequentially assessed against a newly developed Staphylococcu s lugdunensis group I QS reporter strain. The truncated analogues based upon Staphylococcus lugdunensis AIP-1 ( 1 ) and AIP-2 ( 2 ) displayed respective IC 50 values of 0.2 ± 0.01 μM and 0.3 ± 0.01 μM, while the truncated analogue of the Staphylococcus epidermidis AIP-1 ( 3 ) elicited an IC 50 value of 2.7 ± 0.1 μM. These findings demonstrate the potential of cognate and “crosstalk” competitive quorum sensing inhibition using truncated AIPs as a means of attenuating staphylococcal infections in species beyond Staphylococcus aureus .