[S11-1] Bacterial Multidrug Efflux Pumps and Their Inhibitors: A Novel Approach to Combat Drug Resistance
Multidrug efflux is an obstacle to the successful treatment of infectious diseases, and it is mediated by multidrug efflux pumps that recognize and export a broad spectrum of chemically dissimilar toxic compounds. Many bacterial genome sequences have been determined, allowing us to identify drug efflux genes encoded in the bacterial genome. By the postgenomic approach, we have identified drug efflux genes and their regulatory networks in Gram-negative bacteria. Multidrug efflux pumps are often regulated by environmental signals and they are required for bacterial survival in multiple environments in addition to their role in multidrug resistance. It is now understood that these efflux pumps also have physiological roles. We also investigated the roles of drug efflux pumps in virulence. Because multidrug efflux pumps have multiple roles in bacterial drug resistance and adaptation, we propose that drug efflux pumps have greater clinical relevance than previously considered.