Biofilms in resistant Microbial infections.

Probably you’ve popped a few antibiotics within this first quarter of the year, maybe just once, or a few times, predictably not the same antibiotics, maybe different antibiotics geared towards curing one disease, the same antibiotic drug administered to cure different microbial infection and vice versa. Different antibiotics of different chemical composition and activity spectrum, complex as they may be and unarguably causing some undesired changes in your body, but the situation leaves no other option than their consumption.

Microbial infections have always been one of the biggest medical challenges, the advent of antibiotics shone some lights on what if feels like to live in a world where microbial infection is a minor problem, however, this didn’t last, at least not as long as it was presumed with these microbes evolving different mechanisms to outsmart the carefully crafted antibiotics and these mechanisms not only worked for them, it turned these antibiotics into potential health hazards with antibiotics resistance growing over the years to become the one of the most pressing health issues. The use of antibiotics have since then come under scrutiny and special care is taken as regards their administration.

Applications of antibiotics keeps getting less while the viability of these microbes improves and withstanding the inhibitory effects of the administered antibiotics keeps getting easier for them, this ability becomes genetically transferable and resistant strains —Superbugs are encroaching on the medical procedures.

This resistance to the highly lethal abilities of antibiotics comes as a result of adaptive modifications in the physiology and anatomy of the microbes, these modifications not only allows them to resist the effects of the antibiotics, it also allows them to escape the actions of the lytic cells of the immune system via different mechanisms such as causing low dose of asymptomatic infections to escape recognition of the immune system, developing protective cell walls capable of withstanding penetration by lethal chemicals, formation of vegetative pores to withstand harsh conditions and continue their growth when the environmental conditions gets more friendly, and formations of Biofilms.

BIOFILMS

Biofilms are unarguably one of the most interesting communal action of microbes towards survival and resistance of harsh environmental conditions. A biofilm is an aggregate of interactive bacteria attached to a solid surface or to each other and encased in an exopolysaccharide matrix, while this article intends to explain biofilms on the context of human and microbial interactions, biofilms are not only limited to this context, microbial biofilms also presents as slimy coats on a solid surface and they are ubiquitous, this tradition is commonly found amongst bacteria, however other organisms such as fungi also forms biofilms.

Termed cities of microbes the lifestyle of microbial cells in biofilms is purely communal with the cells involved in the colony producing the Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which are combinations of molecules of carbohydrates(polysaccharides), proteins, lipids and DNA. The Extracellular polymeric substances constitutes over 50% of the biofilms and in many cases are the major constituents of a biofilm.

Just like bacterial spores, biofilms are also produced in response to unfavorable environmental conditions such as deficiency of growth requirements and exposure of bacterial cells to lethal chemicals such as antibiotics. Recognition of a suitable growth surface by biofilm forming cells also triggers the formation of biofilms and this can be seen in tooth decay and dental plagues.

Encountering any of these conditions triggers the process of biofilm formation. The cells first attach on to these desired surfaces via weak forces (such as Van Der waal’s forces), on successful attachment to this surface, the biofilm forming cells attached to each using cell adhesion organelles such as the pilli.
The colony-forming cells communicate through quorum sensing products such as N-acyl homoserine lactone, the colony grows and attacks more cells to the growing community of microbes, the development of extra-polymeric substances sets in to protect the cells from the varying environment through the formation of polysaccharide coats with support from materials found in the environment such as blood cells, blood components and minerals, for biofilms formed in an open environment, sand particles also serves to strengthen the polysaccharides and for a stable coat around during the cells, this strain coating helps resist the effects of harsh environmental conditions and antibiotics.

The formed biofilm matures over time, during this maturation period, much energy is also invested into cell division and production of more members for the teeming microbial community, if this process is not sufficiently disrupted by antibiotics, at the completion of the maturation stages of a biofilm forming inside or on aother living organism, the body enzymes attempts to degrade these biofilms following signaling by the polysaccharide, protein and lipid giant-molecules which forms the Extracellular polymeric substances, but this process backfires as the degradation by enzymes such as deoxyribonuclease and dispersin B may contribute to the dispersion of the biofilms as they cleave the biofilms into more viable pieces capable of continuing communal existence. These cleaved parts of the biofilms attaches to a suitable surface on the body and continue their metabolism and cell division which attracting more microbes to itself to form another biofilm, this stage is highly essential for the microbial community and ensures dispersion. Recent research have also shown that these dispersed biofilms are more viable than the parent biofilms and are capable of causing more harm to the organism.

Biofilms in Human microbial infections

Via the culture of disease study, the prominence of biofilms in human cannot be overlooked, coming up as just a little infection or infestation, microbes on and/or in humans find abundant nutrients and growth factors to enable their procreation and foster their metabolism, hence biofilms are found in human. On solid body surfaces such as the teeth and gums, biofilms presents themselves as dental plagues, causing tooth decay and other tooth diseases, sometimes they tend to calcify with the teeth and form strong coloured bacterial colony on the tooth which may require some mechanical techniques for their removal.

Biofilms have also been implicated in over 75% of microbial infections in humans, they can be found in cases such as urinary tract infections (UTI), bacterial vaginosis, middle-ear infections and they have also been implicated in persistant winds which defiles recovery attempts. Microbial biofilms are also lethargic though less pronounced in cases such as cystic fibrosis and chronic sinusitis, staphylococcus aureus biofilms have also been reported in staphylococcal infections. The primary factor which triggers the formation of biofilms in humans is incomplete eradication of microbes during the initial stage of a microbial infection. These survivors not only strive to develop resistance to such antibiotics in case of subsequent attacks, they also form biofilms to support each other as they attempt to replenish the depleted population. Hence Non-professional use of antibiotics not only leads to the development of antibiotics resistance, but also stimulates the development of highly virulent biofilms capable of dispersion on incomplete degradation by internal enzymes. Pathogens such as streptococcus pneumoniae, pseudomonas aeruginosa and staphylococcus aureus are susceptible to the formation of biofilms.

Biofilms in persistent microbial infection and human medicine

Biofilms presents intense drug resistant microbial infections, biofilms endows on the microbes some amazing resistance to harsh environmental conditions and ability to withstand antibiotics and also escape recognition of the immune system, even on successful recognition by the immune system, biofilms tends to be a hard nut to crackas the Pathogen Associated Molecules prevents the penetration of the lyric cells and enzymes of the immune system through their highly strengthened and resistant Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Biofilms also constitutes major problems in the handling of biomedical equipment as they also colonize surfaces of medical equipment, due to their high heat resistant abilities, biofilms on the surface of these equipment can withstand high levels of sterilization heat and retain enough viability to infect patients during the process of surgery and drug administration via intravenous route or other routes apart from oral and subcutaneous routes of drug administration.

While these resistance results mainly from poorly managed microbial infection, more emphasis is on the use of antibiotics, disinfectants and sterilization processes. Survivors of initial attacks develops resistance with the aid of the sub-lethal signals from the previous attacks, their cellular constituents adjust to withstand subsequent attacks of similar intensity. The rules of antibiotics remains that if they must be taken, then strict adherence to the prescriptions is mandatory, sterilization processes should also ensure 100% eradication of microbes.

References

Biofilms and their role in pathogenesis~immunology

Biofilms; an overview~sciencedirect

what are biofilms~livescience

Biofilm~wikipedia

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