Biofilm growth and IL-8 & TNF-α-inducing properties of Candida albicans in the presence of oral gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria

Abstract

Background: Interaction of C. albicans with oral bacteria is crucial for its persistence, but also plays a potential role in the infection process. In the oral cavity, it grows as part of dental plaque biofilms. Even though growth and interaction of C. albicans with certain bacterial species has been studied, little is known about its biofilm growth in vitro in the simultaneous presence of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The aim was to evaluate the growth of C. albicans in polymicrobial biofilms comprising oral Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Further, we also aimed to assess the potential of C. albicans in the Candida-bacteria polymicrobial biofilm to elicit cytokine gene expression and cytokine production from human blood cells. Results: C. albicans cell counts increased significantly up to 48 h in polymicrobial biofilms (p < 0.05), while the bacterial counts in the same biofilms increased only marginally as revealed by qPCR absolute quantification. However, the presence of bacteria in the biofilm did not seem to affect the growth of C. albicans. Expression of IL-8 gene was significantly (p < 0.05) higher upon stimulation from biofilm-supernatants than from biofilms in polymicrobial setting. On the contrary, TNF-α expression was significantly higher in biofilms than in supernatants but was very low (1-4 folds) in the monospecies biofilm of C. albicans. ELISA cytokine quantification data was in agreement with mRNA expression results. Conclusion: Persistence and enhanced growth of C. albicans in polymicrobial biofilms may imply that previously reported antagonistic effect of A. actinomycetemcomitans was negated. Increased cytokine gene expression and cytokine production induced by Candida-bacteria polymicrobial biofilms and biofilm supernatants suggest that together they possibly exert an enhanced stimulatory effect on IL-8 and TNF-α production from the host.

The Role of Candida albicans Virulence Factors in the Formation of Multispecies Biofilms With Bacterial Periodontal Pathogens

“…Taking into account the fact that C. albicans blastospores are less sensitive to the action of host macrophages (Bor et al, 2016), it can be concluded that the bacteria, by suppressing fungal biofilm formation, indirectly protect C. albicans from the host immune system. The recent studies of polymicrobial biofilms by Bhardwaj et al (2020) showed that the simultaneous presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans and Gram-positive bacteria-S. gordonii and S. mutans-significantly accelerated the growth of C. albicans reference strain ATCC 24433. Moreover, an increased ability of polymicrobial communities to induce an inflammatory response of host cells was demonstrated.…”

“…Moreover, an increased ability of polymicrobial communities to induce an inflammatory response of host cells was demonstrated. Both biofilms and biofilm supernatants significantly induced the increase of TNF-a and IL-8 at the gene and protein levels (Bhardwaj et al, 2020). In a recent study by Young et al (2020), two biofilm models were used to investigate the role of C. albicans in the multispecies community.…”

Microbial biofilms and some aspects of anti-inflammatory drug use

“…In the study of synergism between the biofilm forms of bacteria (S. aureus, E.coil, P. aeru ginosa) and Candida fungi, it was found that this effect depends on the production of pro-inflammatory prostaglandin PGE2 [58], which causes a pronounced influence on the development of inflammatory process and protective reactions of the body, inhibits natural killers, a function of granulocytes, alveolar macrophages and inhibits phagocytosis [59]. The complex relationship between the components of biofilms involving Candida fungi is indicated in work [60].…”

The Membranotropic Peptide gH625 to Combat Mixed Candida albicans/Klebsiella pneumoniae Biofilm: Correlation between In Vitro Anti-Biofilm Activity and In Vivo Antimicrobial Protection

“…Moreover, polymicrobial biofilms are likely to influence disease severity by promoting intensified pathogenic phenotypes, including increased resistance to both host defense and antimicrobial therapies. Despite their clinical significance, polymicrobial biofilm infections continue to be largely understudied [4].…”