Dual role colonization factors connecting Vibrio cholerae's lifestyles in human and aquatic environments open new perspectives for combating infectious diseases

Vibrio cholerae exhibits two distinctive lifestyles, one inside the milieu of the human intestine and the other in the aquatic environment. Recently, the existence of V. cholerae ligands involved in colonization of both human intestine and environmental chitin surfaces via the same binding specificity has been shown. Such molecules, here named ‘dual role colonization factors (DRCFs)’, are example of a tight connection between the two V. cholerae's lifestyles. It is suggested that DRCFs and, more generally, bacterial factors and pathways having roles in pathogenesis and in the out of the human body life may be promising targets for development of novel prophylactic or therapeutic interventions that may also affect V. cholerae fitness in its environmental reservoirs.