Abstract
P. aeruginosa is a notorious biofilm producer that causes a wide variety of acute and chronic infections. In this study the in vitro anti-biofilm activity of 13 Host Defence Peptides from different species was tested against P. aeruginosa biofilms. Most HDPs were able to prevent biofilm attachment, due to their antimicrobial effect on planktonic bacteria in the starting inoculum. Activity of HDPs against pre-formed biofilms was also observed, although mainly at short incubation times. Several HDPs were able to kill bacteria in the biofilm (colony counting of biofilm associated bacteria) but only CRAMP eradicated the whole biofilm (crystal violet staining). These results were quantitatively confirmed by confocal microscopy studies using a live/dead stain of the biofilms. Furthermore, for chicken CATH-2 (one of the more potent HDPs) it was shown that the peptide could indeed penetrate the biofilm structures and kill bacteria within the biofilm. These studies highlight the potency but also the limitations of HDPs as new potential anti-biofilm agents.
Highlights
Biofilms are three-dimensional bacterial communities attached to surfaces, either living or abiotic, surrounded by an extracellular matrix consisting of bacterium-derived DNA, proteins and exopolysaccharides[1,2,3]
The NIH acknowledged that likely 80 percent of medical bacterial infections treated by physicians in the developed world are caused by organisms growing in biofilms[11]
Discovery of all current antibiotics and other antimicrobial products are based on activity towards planktonic bacteria[7]
Summary
Biofilms are three-dimensional bacterial communities attached to surfaces, either living or abiotic, surrounded by an extracellular matrix consisting of bacterium-derived DNA, proteins and exopolysaccharides[1,2,3]. Established biofilms can be up to 1,000-fold more resistant to antibiotic treatment than planktonic bacteria, making them very resistant to current treatments[12]. This is partially because most antimicrobials are mainly effective against rapidly growing cells. The mismatch between current antibiotics and anti-biofilm activity has led to a rethinking in the optimal strategy to fight chronic biofilm related infections and an intensified search for new antimicrobials. One class of such new anti-biofilm compounds could be formed by Host Defence Peptides (HDPs). There is still only a limited number of articles about eradicating preformed biofilms[10,14,15,16], especially considering the large number of naturally occurring HDPs
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