Interactions with Microbial Proteins Driving the Antibacterial Activity of Flavonoids

Flavonoids are among the most abundant natural bioactive compounds produced by plants.Many different activities have been reported for these secondary metabolites against numerouscells and systems. One of the most interesting is certainly the antimicrobial, which is stimulatedthrough various molecular mechanisms. In fact, flavonoids are effective both in directly damaging theenvelope of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria but also by acting toward specific moleculartargets essential for the survival of these microorganisms. The purpose of this paper is to presentan overview of the most interesting results obtained in the research focused on the study of theinteractions between flavonoids and bacterial proteins. Despite the great structural heterogeneityof these plant metabolites, it is interesting to observe that many flavonoids affect the same cellularpathways. Furthermore, it is evident that some of these compounds interact with more than onetarget, producing multiple effects. Taken together, the reported data demonstrate the great potentialof flavonoids in developing innovative systems, which can help address the increasingly seriousproblem of antibiotic resistance