N-Sulfonyl homoserine lactones as antagonists of bacterial quorum sensing.

A series of 11 new analogues of N-acylhomoserine lactones in which the carboxamide bond was replaced by a sulfonamide one, has been synthesised. These compounds were evaluated for their ability to competitively inhibit the action of 3-oxohexanoyl-L-homoserine lactone, the natural ligand of the quorum sensing transcriptional regulator LuxR, which in turn activates expression of bioluminescence in the model bacterium Vibrio fischeri. Several compounds were found to display antagonist activity. Molecular modeling suggests that the latter prevent a cascade of structural rearrangements necessary for the formation of the active LuxR dimer.