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Bacterial Biofilms: From Regulation to Strategies to Study and Fight Them

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A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiofilm Strategies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 12537

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sandra Pinto

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Guest Editor

IBB-Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: nanomaterials; antimicrobial polymers; antimicrobial peptides; anticancer polymers; bacterial biofilms; biophysics; confocal and two-photon microscopy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Vânia Pobre

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal
Interests: Small Non-coding RNAs; RNA regulation; Transcriptomics; Bioinformatics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The irresponsible use of antibiotics is triggering the emergence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial strains. Currently, at least 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant diseases. It is recognized that bacterial biofilms are responsible for most of the microbial infections that occur in the human body, including catheter infections, eye infections and the formation of dental plaque. Biofilm-related infections are particularly difficult to treat since microbial cells in biofilms exhibit increased resistance levels to antibiotics—up to 1000-fold higher than planktonic (free-floating) cells. Bacterial biofilms are defined as complex aggregates of bacteria that grow attached to surfaces or associated with interfaces and are embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix made of polysaccharides, nucleic acids and proteins. In the last few decades, few novel compounds that can overcome the resistance to antimicrobial agents associated with biofilm infection were developed. As a result, one of the major challenges in current biomedical research is the search for novel and effective antimicrobial strategies that can treat infections caused by bacterial biofilms, and for that it is essential to understand the regulatory mechanisms that lead to the formation of biofilms.

This Special Issue will focus on strategies that can help identify, prevent and remove bacterial biofilms. Additionally, it will focus on the regulation of biofilms as increasing knowledge in this area can be particularly helpful to the development of future therapeutics. This Special Issue welcomes different submission types, such as original research papers, short communications, reviews, case reports and perspectives.

Dr. Sandra Pinto
Dr. Vânia Pobre
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

bacterial biofilms
biofilm nucleic acids
antibiofilm strategies
biofilm components
mechanisms of biofilm formation
imaging of biofilms

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2977 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Anti-Biofilm Efficacy of Commonly Used Wound Care Products in In Vitro Settings

by Matthew Regulski, Matthew F. Myntti and Garth A. James

Antibiotics 2023, 12(3), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030536 - 08 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3182

Abstract

Considering the prevalence and pathogenicity of biofilms in wounds, this study was designed to evaluate the anti-biofilm capabilities of eight commercially available wound care products using established in vitro assays for biofilms. The products evaluated included dressings with multiple delivery formats for ionic silver including nanocrystalline, gelling fibers, polyurethane (PU) foam, and polymer matrix. Additionally, non-silver-based products including an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS)-dissolving antimicrobial wound gel (BDWG), a collagenase-based debriding ointment and a fish skin-based skin substitute were also evaluated. The products were evaluated on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa mixed-species biofilms grown using colony drip flow reactor (CDFR) and standard drip flow reactor (DFR) methodologies. Anti-biofilm efficacy was measured by viable plate counts and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM). Four of the eight wound care products tested were efficacious in inhibiting growth of new biofilm when compared with untreated controls. These four products were further evaluated against mature biofilms. BDWG was the only product that achieved greater than 2-log growth reduction (5.88 and 6.58 for S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, respectively) of a mature biofilm. Evaluating both biofilm prevention and mature biofilm disruption capacity is important to a comprehensive understanding of the anti-biofilm efficacy of wound care products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Biofilms: From Regulation to Strategies to Study and Fight Them)

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14 pages, 2669 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CcpA Regulates Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation through Direct Repression of Staphylokinase Expression

by Mingxia Zheng, Keting Zhu, Huagang Peng, Weilong Shang, Yan Zhao, Shuguang Lu, Xiancai Rao, Ming Li, Renjie Zhou and Gang Li

Antibiotics 2022, 11(10), 1426; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11101426 - 17 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1920

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus represents a notorious opportunistic pathogen causing various infections in biofilm nature, imposing remarkable therapeutic challenges worldwide. The catabolite control protein A (CcpA), a major regulator of carbon catabolite repression (CCR), has been recognized to modulate S. aureus biofilm formation, while the underlying mechanism remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, the reduced biofilm was firstly determined in the ccpA deletion mutant of S. aureus clinical isolate XN108 using both crystal violet staining and confocal laser scanning microscopy. RNA-seq analysis suggested that sak-encoding staphylokinase (Sak) was significantly upregulated in the mutant ∆ccpA, which was further confirmed by RT-qPCR. Consistently, the induced Sak production correlated the elevated promoter activity of sak and increased secretion in the supernatants, as demonstrated by Psak-lacZ reporter fusion expression and chromogenic detection, respectively. Notably, electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that purified recombinant protein CcpA binds directly to the promoter region of sak, suggesting the direct negative control of sak expression by CcpA. Double isogenic deletion of ccpA and sak restored biofilm formation for mutant ∆ccpA, which could be diminished by trans-complemented sak. Furthermore, the exogenous addition of recombinant Sak inhibited biofilm formation for XN108 in a dose-dependent manner. Together, this study delineates a novel model of CcpA-controlled S. aureus biofilm through direct inhibition of sak expression, highlighting the multifaceted roles and multiple networks regulated by CcpA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Biofilms: From Regulation to Strategies to Study and Fight Them)

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Review

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24 pages, 1127 KiB

Open AccessReview

Physical Approaches to Prevent and Treat Bacterial Biofilm

by Alexa A. Ciarolla, Norman Lapin, Dustin Williams, Rajiv Chopra and David E. Greenberg

Antibiotics 2023, 12(1), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12010054 - 29 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2970

Abstract

Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) presents several clinical challenges. This is in large part due to the formation of biofilm which can make infection eradication exceedingly difficult. Following an extensive literature search, this review surveys a variety of non-pharmacological methods of preventing and/or treating biofilm within the body and how they could be utilized in the treatment of PJI. Special attention has been paid to physical strategies such as heat, light, sound, and electromagnetic energy, and their uses in biofilm treatment. Though these methods are still under study, they offer a potential means to reduce the morbidity and financial burden related to multiple stage revisions and prolonged systemic antibiotic courses that make up the current gold standard in PJI treatment. Given that these options are still in the early stages of development and offer their own strengths and weaknesses, this review offers an assessment of each method, the progress made on each, and allows for comparison of methods with discussion of future challenges to their implementation in a clinical setting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Biofilms: From Regulation to Strategies to Study and Fight Them)

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21 pages, 1163 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Two Weapons against Bacterial Biofilms: Detection and Treatment

by Adriana Cruz, Manuel Condinho, Beatriz Carvalho, Cecília M. Arraiano, Vânia Pobre and Sandra N. Pinto

Antibiotics 2021, 10(12), 1482; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10121482 - 03 Dec 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3665

Abstract

Bacterial biofilms are defined as complex aggregates of bacteria that grow attached to surfaces or are associated with interfaces. Bacteria within biofilms are embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix made of polysaccharides, nucleic acids, and proteins. It is recognized that bacterial biofilms are responsible for the majority of microbial infections that occur in the human body, and that biofilm-related infections are extremely difficult to treat. This is related with the fact that microbial cells in biofilms exhibit increased resistance levels to antibiotics in comparison with planktonic (free-floating) cells. In the last years, the introduction into the market of novel compounds that can overcome the resistance to antimicrobial agents associated with biofilm infection has slowed down. If this situation is not altered, millions of lives are at risk, and this will also strongly affect the world economy. As such, research into the identification and eradication of biofilms is important for the future of human health. In this sense, this article provides an overview of techniques developed to detect and imaging biofilms as well as recent strategies that can be applied to treat biofilms during the several biofilm formation steps. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Biofilms: From Regulation to Strategies to Study and Fight Them)

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