Novel Strategies for Combating Pathogenic Biofilms Using Plant Products and Microbial Antibiosis

Abstract

Microorganisms prefer to live in three-dimensional self-organized communities (biofilms), and this behavior provides microbial pathogens inhabiting various sites in the human body or on medical devices with survival advantages. In fact, pathogens in the biofilm stage exhibit up to a thousandfold more tolerance to conventional antimicrobial agents, and thus, they are difficult to eradicate and biofilms generated during acute infections become persistent, chronic, and recurrent. Consequently, novel strategies are being sought to control biofilm associated infections. The developmental strategies used include improved drug delivery and the penetration of biofilm matrices, and in particular, natural products that interfere with virulence and cross talk between microbial cells are being investigated as potential anti-biofilm agents. This article provides an overview of existing and promising biofilm control strategies based on plant and microbial products. Control strategies like quorum sensing inhibition, microbial antibiosis, and the uses of phages and probiotics are reviewed along with current developments in high throughput screening and in our understanding of structure activity relationships related to the regulation of biofilms by small molecules.