Biofilm Formation by Staphylococcus aureus in the Specific Context of Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen whose characteristics support its success in various clinical settings including Cystic Fibrosis (CF). In CF, S. aureus is indeed the most commonly identified opportunistic pathogen in children and the overall population. S. aureus colonization/infection, either by methicillin-susceptible or methicillin-resistant strains, will become chronic in about one third of CF patients. The persistence of S. aureus in CF patients’ lungs, despite various eradication strategies, is favored by several traits in both host and pathogen. Among the latter, living in biofilm is a highly protective way to survive despite deleterious environmental conditions, and is a common characteristic shared by the main pathogens identified in CF. This is why CF has earned the status of a biofilm-associated disease for several years now. Biofilm formation by S. aureus, and the molecular mechanisms governing and regulating it, have been extensively studied but have received less attention in the specific context of CF lungs. Here, we review the current knowledge on S. aureus biofilm in this very context, i.e., the importance, study methods, molecular data published on mono- and multi-species biofilm and anti-biofilm strategies. This focus on studies including clinical isolates from CF patients shows that they are still under-represented in the literature compared with studies based on reference strains, and underlines the need for such studies. Indeed, CF clinical strains display specific characteristics that may not be extrapolated from results obtained on laboratory strains.

Microbial Biofilms: Applications, Clinical Consequences, and Alternative Therapies

“…At a 1% v/v concentration, the essential oils (EOs) extracted from Piper nigrum and Mentha suaveolens were found to diminish Staphylococcus aureus biofilm development by 40%, mainly by decomposing EPS and dismantling the surface, as demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but not by inhibiting bacterial growth. Eugenol and β-caryophellene were found to be responsible for the anti-biofilm effect [ 118 ]. Table 2 presents details of the efficacy of the tested plant extracts against well-known biofilm-forming bacteria.…”

MSIF-LNP: microbial and human health association prediction based on matrix factorization noise reduction for similarity fusion and bidirectional linear neighborhood label propagation

“…We have selected cystic fibrosis and obesity as our case study, and we have validated the top 10 microbes in the PubMed database that rank in the prediction of these two diseases, both of which have an accuracy of 90%, and Table 2 shows the prediction results for cystic fibrosis ( CF ). CF is an inherited exocrine gland disease that primarily affects the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems and can lead to bronchitis, malnutrition, and other symptoms, and it is estimated that there are about 70,000 cases worldwide, with approximately 1,000 new cases added each year ( Jean-Pierre et al, 2023 ). According to previous studies, a relationship exists between CF and S. aureus , and Jean-Pierre et al (2023) concluded that S. aureus is the main opportunistic pathogen in CF patients and that biofilm production is a determining factor for CF patients to have persistent episodes of S. aureus respiratory infections.…”

Sticking to the Subject: Multifunctionality in Microbial Adhesins

“…Thus, cell-cell adhesion systems evolve to match the needed kinetics and the duration of cell-cell binding. Among microbes, cell adhesion can last seconds to minutes to entire lifetimes (especially for cells in persistent biofilms and in lichens) [15,27,28]. The requirements for temporary or permanent contacts are achieved through variations in dissociation rates and in avidity.…”