Many bacterial infections in humans and animals are caused by bacteria residing in biofilms, complex communities of attached organisms embedded in an extracellular matrix. One of the key properties of microorganisms residing in a biofilm is decreased susceptibility towards antimicrobial agents. This decreased susceptibility, together with conventional mechanisms leading to antimicrobial resistance, makes biofilm-related infections increasingly difficult to treat and alternative antibiofilm strategies are urgently required. In this review, we present three such strategies to combat biofilm-related infections with the important human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus: (i) targeting the bacterial communication system with quorum sensing (QS) inhibitors, (ii) a ‘Trojan Horse’ strategy to disturb iron metabolism by using gallium-based therapeutics and (iii) the use of ‘non-antibiotics’ with antibiofilm activity identified through screening of repurposing libraries.
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March 2017
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A representative image of a microfl uidic device for antibiotic susceptibility testing. In the device, bacterial cells are immobilized enabling realtime monitoring of bacterial morphology. Upon addition of antibiotics, susceptible cells die, while the resistant bacteria survive. For more information please see the article by Aroonnual et al. (pages 91-101). - PDF Icon PDF LinkTable of Contents
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Review Article|
March 03 2017
Innovative approaches to treat Staphylococcus aureus biofilm-related infections
Katharina Richter;
Katharina Richter
1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research, University of Adelaide, 37a Woodville Road, Woodville South, SA 5011, Australia
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Freija Van den Driessche;
Freija Van den Driessche
2Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Ghent University, Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Gent, Belgium
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Tom Coenye
Tom Coenye
2Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Ghent University, Ottergemsesteenweg 460, 9000 Gent, Belgium
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
September 22 2016
Revision Received:
November 22 2016
Accepted:
November 24 2016
Online ISSN: 1744-1358
Print ISSN: 0071-1365
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society
2017
Essays Biochem (2017) 61 (1): 61–70.
Article history
Received:
September 22 2016
Revision Received:
November 22 2016
Accepted:
November 24 2016
Citation
Henrietta Venter, Katharina Richter, Freija Van den Driessche, Tom Coenye; Innovative approaches to treat Staphylococcus aureus biofilm-related infections. Essays Biochem 3 March 2017; 61 (1): 61–70. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/EBC20160056
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