Colonies of bacteria use chemical signals to keep tabs on their numbers and, like an amassing army, only attack when their populations are large enough to ensure they will swamp a host's immune defences. The bacteria sense their numbers by the strength of the chemical signals they receive and as soon as they reach a certain threshold change behaviour dramatically, growing aggressively and turning on virulence genes to cause infection. Many bacterial colonies also set up defences by secreting a mucus-like substance which forms a slimy, protective "biofilm" around them, making them nearly impervious to antibiotics.
This means that if we can find a way to disrupt the signalling systems, the bacteria don't become a co-ordinated 'army'. I'm minded of the way that agglomarations of humans move from being a crowd to being a mob or an organisation. Clearly our signalling systems are involved. If my intuition is right that we should be thinking of the transition from crowd to organisation as the genesis of a 'principality', then part of our struggle against principalities and powers could be about disrupting signalling systems...
Guardian Unlimited | Science | New hope raised in battle against drug-resistant bacteria:
Filed in: MRSA, bacteria, colony, signal-disruption, infection
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