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Microorganisms
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The Influence of Biofilm Aggregates and Antimicrobial Resistance on Clearance...
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The Influence of Biofilm Aggregates and Antimicrobial Resistance on Clearance of Infection

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Biofilm".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 10282

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jim Manos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Discipline of Infectious Diseases & Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Interests: medical microbiology; respiratory pathogens; biofilms; virulence gene expression; persister cells; novel antibacterial agents
Dr. Karen Vickery

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Surgical Infection Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Interests: biofilms; infection control; disinfectants; medical implants; cleaning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The well-established phenomenon of bacterial cell aggregation to form biofilms poses a key threat to the effective treatment of chronic bacterial infections. Biofilms render internalized cells passively resistant to antibiotic killing, due to lowered levels of penetration, and concurrently allow surviving cells to persist and conceivably develop resistance to these antibiotics. Concurrently, infection with multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria presents an ever-increasing problem in treating both acute and chronic bacterial infections. Chronic infection with an MDR strain can result in early death.

The WHO has classified antimicrobial resistance as one of the most significant threats to global health (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/). Currently, close to 1,000,000 people die worldwide each year as a result of resistant infections. Thus, the issue of how to remove or kill aggregated bacteria without enhancing antibiotic resistance has led researchers to investigate the use of parallel treatments, which include adjuvants, synergistically active compounds, and new antibiotics, to provide a more effective pathway towards aggregate penetration and bacterial eradication. The in vivo effects of some of these antibiofilm/antibiotic combinations are now under investigation in vivo.

In this Special Issue of Microorganisms, we invite you to contribute original research and review articles describing the ability of antibiofilm treatments—traditional and novel—to enhance antibiotic effectiveness in the eradication of infecting bacteria. Particular emphasis is placed on treatments that have shown promising results in vivo (animal and human trials).

Dr. Jim Manos
Dr. Karen Vickery
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. Microorganisms 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 2700 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

  • chronic bacterial infections
  • bacterial aggregates
  • antibiotic resistance
  • combined antibiofilm treatments
  • novel compounds for treating biofilm infections

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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15 pages, 2167 KiB  
Review
The Use of Artificial Sputum Media to Enhance Investigation and Subsequent Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis Bacterial Infections
by Aditi Aiyer and Jim Manos
Microorganisms 2022, 10(7), 1269; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10071269 - 22 Jun 2022
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3856
Abstract
In cystic fibrosis (CF), mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator protein reduce ionic exchange in the lung, resulting in thicker mucus, which impairs mucociliary function, airway inflammation and infection. The mucosal and nutritional environment of the CF lung is inadequately mimicked by [...] Read more.
In cystic fibrosis (CF), mutations in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator protein reduce ionic exchange in the lung, resulting in thicker mucus, which impairs mucociliary function, airway inflammation and infection. The mucosal and nutritional environment of the CF lung is inadequately mimicked by commercially available growth media, as it lacks key components involved in microbial pathogenesis. Defining the nutritional composition of CF sputum has been a long-term goal of in vitro research into CF infections to better elucidate bacterial growth and infection pathways. This narrative review highlights the development of artificial sputum medium, from a viable in vitro method for understanding bacterial mechanisms utilised in CF lung, to uses in the development of antimicrobial treatment regimens and examination of interactions at the epithelial cell surface and interior by the addition of host cell layers. The authors collated publications based on a PubMed search using the key words: “artificial sputum media” and “cystic fibrosis”. The earliest iteration of artificial sputum media were developed in 1997. Formulations since then have been based either on published data or chemically derived from extracted sputum. Formulations contain combinations of mucin, extracellular DNA, iron, amino acids, and lipids. A valuable advantage of artificial sputum media is the ability to standardise media composition according to experimental requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Influence of Biofilm Aggregates and Antimicrobial Resistance on Clearance of Infection)
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33 pages, 2772 KiB  
Review
Current and Emerging Therapies to Combat Cystic Fibrosis Lung Infections
by Jim Manos
Microorganisms 2021, 9(9), 1874; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9091874 - 3 Sep 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 5687
Abstract
The ultimate aim of any antimicrobial treatment is a better infection outcome for the patient. Here, we review the current state of treatment for bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung while also investigating potential new treatments being developed to see how they [...] Read more.
The ultimate aim of any antimicrobial treatment is a better infection outcome for the patient. Here, we review the current state of treatment for bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung while also investigating potential new treatments being developed to see how they may change the dynamics of antimicrobial therapy. Treatment with antibiotics coupled with regular physical therapy has been shown to reduce exacerbations and may eradicate some strains. Therapies such as hypertonic saline and inhaled PulmozymeTM (DNase-I) improve mucus clearance, while modifier drugs, singly and more successfully in combination, re-open certain mutant forms of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) to enable ion passage. No current method, however, completely eradicates infection, mainly due to bacterial survival within biofilm aggregates. Lung transplants increase lifespan, but reinfection is a continuing problem. CFTR modifiers normalise ion transport for the affected mutations, but there is conflicting evidence on bacterial clearance. Emerging treatments combine antibiotics with novel compounds including quorum-sensing inhibitors, antioxidants, and enzymes, or with bacteriophages, aiming to disrupt the biofilm matrix and improve antibiotic access. Other treatments involve bacteriophages that target, infect and kill bacteria. These novel therapeutic approaches are showing good promise in vitro, and a few have made the leap to in vivo testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Influence of Biofilm Aggregates and Antimicrobial Resistance on Clearance of Infection)
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