Strategies for combating bacterial biofilms: A focus on anti-biofilm agents and their mechanisms of action

By Ranita Roy, Monalisa Tiwari, G. Donelli, V. Tiwari. Virulence, 2017

1,291 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT Biofilm refers to the complex, sessile communities of microbes found either attached to a surface or buried firmly in an extracellular matrix as aggregates. The biofilm matrix surrounding bacteria makes them tolerant to harsh conditions and resistant to antibacterial treatments. Moreover, the biofilms are responsible for causing a broad range of chronic diseases and due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria it has really become difficult to treat them with efficacy. Furthermore, the antibiotics available till date are ineffective for treating these biofilm related infections due to their higher values of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), which may result in in-vivo toxicity. Hence, it is critically important to design or screen anti-biofilm molecules that can effectively minimize and eradicate biofilm related infections. In the present article, we have highlighted the mechanism of biofilm formation with reference to different models and various methods used for biofilm detection. A major focus has been put on various anti-biofilm molecules discovered or tested till date which may include herbal active compounds, chelating agents, peptide antibiotics, lantibiotics and synthetic chemical compounds along with their structures, mechanism of action and their respective MICs, MBCs, minimum biofilm inhibitory concentrations (MBICs) as well as the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values available in the literature so far. Different mode of action of anti biofilm molecules addressed here are inhibition via interference in the quorum sensing pathways, adhesion mechanism, disruption of extracellular DNA, protein, lipopolysaccharides, exopolysaccharides and secondary messengers involved in various signaling pathways. From this study, we conclude that the molecules considered here might be used to treat biofilm-associated infections after significant structural modifications, thereby investigating its effective delivery in the host. It should also be ensured that minimum effective concentration of these molecules must be capable of eradicating biofilm infections with maximum potency without posing any adverse side effects on the host.

Subfields: Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Periodontics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/72cd2c13178369a7d47d20e642ca58e54923bafa

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Citations in the corpus

Skin Wound Healing Process and New Emerging Technologies for Skin Wound Care and Regeneration (2020, background): “In addition, exudation may be the first indicator of possible systemic complications [28]; the signaling of mediators and protein content can provide information about the type of tissue involved in the damage and facilitate the selection of the most appropriate treatment approach.”
Understanding bacterial biofilms: From definition to treatment strategies (2023, background): “Certain imaging techniques, such as infrared spectroscopy, reflection spectroscopy, optical fluorescence imaging, confocal laser scanning microscopy, target fluorescence imaging, and fluorescence in situ hybridization of peptide nucleic acid, can also be used to detect the formation of biofilms and ”
Microbial Biofilm: A Review on Formation, Infection, Antibiotic Resistance, Control Measures, and Innovative Treatment (2023, positive): “Studies on the bioﬁlm of S. epidermidis have reported that DNase, proteinase K, and trypsin are some of the enzymes that target matrix proteins and break down eDNA, reducing the ﬁrmness and durability of the bioﬁlm [183].”