2 - Properties of biofilms developed on medical devices

Abstract

Benign or pathogenic, microbial biofilms can be found on various viable and inert surfaces, due to the high number of species that are prone to form such multicellular consortia. Biofilm formation can develop on virtually any medical device, representing thus an emerging problem in public health sector because of the increased tolerance to current antimicrobial therapy. With the highest prevalence, bacterial biofilms are also the most intensely studied. In humans, Gram-positive bacterial infections are more prevalent than Gram-negative ones, resulting in biofilm development on the surface of medical devices, facilitated by certain human blood components. Surface of medical devices, regardless of their different synthetic composition could also be colonized by different fungal species, the most recognized fungal infections being those related to Candida species. The rather undocumented or dismissed archaea and protozoan biofilm structures are also relevant for the comprehension of illness setup, and their study could lead to the boost of antibiofilm techniques. Many approaches to obtain biofilm inhibition were developed, but their efficiency is limited by the complex properties of these microbial communities. Hybrid approaches of both classical and modern treatments involving bioactive substances and nanotechnology, materials design, and engineering have been applied in prototype systems aiming to interfere with the virulence of microorganisms, to reduce the adhesion, initiation, and maturation of biofilms.