Antibiotic resistance is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century. However, the growing
understanding of bacterial pathogenesis and cell-to-cell communication has revealed many potential
strategies for the discovery of drugs that can be used for the treatment of bacterial infections. Interfering
with bacterial virulence and/or quorum sensing could be a particularly interesting approach, because it is
believed to exert less selective pressure on the bacterial resistance than with traditional strategies,
geared toward killing bacteria or preventing their growth. Here, we discuss the mechanism of bacterial
virulence, presenting promising strategies and recently synthesized heterocyclic compounds to combat
future bacterial infections.