Metabolomic analysis of low and high biofilm-forming Helicobacter pylori strains

Abstract

The biofilm-forming-capability of Helicobacter pylori has been suggested to be among factors influencing treatment outcome. However, H. pylori exhibit strain-to-strain differences in biofilm-forming-capability. Metabolomics enables the inference of spatial and temporal changes of metabolic activities during biofilm formation. Our study seeks to examine the differences in metabolome of low and high biofilm-formers using the metabolomic approach. Eight H. pylori clinical strains with different biofilm-forming-capability were chosen for metabolomic analysis. Bacterial metabolites were extracted using Bligh and Dyer method and analyzed by Liquid Chromatography/Quadrupole Time-of-Flight mass spectrometry. The data was processed and analyzed using the MassHunter Qualitative Analysis and the Mass Profiler Professional programs. Based on global metabolomic profiles, low and high biofilm-formers presented as two distinctly different groups. Interestingly, low-biofilm-formers produced more metabolites than high-biofilm-formers. Further analysis was performed to identify metabolites that differed significantly (p-value < 0.005) between low and high biofilm-formers. These metabolites include major categories of lipids and metabolites involve in prostaglandin and folate metabolism. Our findings suggest that biofilm formation in H. pylori is complex and probably driven by the bacterium’ endogenous metabolism. Understanding the underlying metabolic differences between low and high biofilm-formers may enhance our current understanding of pathogenesis, extragastric survival and transmission of H. pylori infections.

Biofilm Formation and Antibiotic Resistance Phenotype of Helicobacter pylori Clinical Isolates

“…These possible mechanisms should be confirmed in H. pylori in a future study. These mechanisms were supported by the decrease in metabolite of the biofilm form of H. pylori compared to the planktonic strain [36]. An increasing efflux pump was also observed in biofilm-growing H. pylori [27,28].…”

Potential Role of Biofilm Formation in the Development of Digestive Tract Cancer With Special Reference to Helicobacter pylori Infection

“…Bacterial cells in stationary biofilms have also been reported to increase synthesis of pili, fimbriae and exopolysaccharides as well as lipopolysaccharide modification and production of stress-response enzymes (Prigent-Combaret et al, 1999; Folsom et al, 2010). Wong et al recently profiled metabolites of high and low biofilm forming Hp strains from Malaysia using liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Wong et al, 2018). The study compared four high and four low biofilm forming strains cultured up to 3 days in duplicate.…”

“…Interestingly, low-biofilm-formers produced more metabolites than high-biofilm-formers, consistent with lower overall metabolic activities in biofilm-associated bacteria. Further analysis indicated that the metabolites significantly lower in high biofilm producers belonged to major categories of lipids, with an important role in bacterial-bacterial communications, and metabolites involved in prostaglandin synthesis (Wong et al, 2018).…”

Functional heterogeneity of metabolites excreted by fungal and bacterial biofilms and their effects on seedling growth

“…These variations of metabolites are attributed to the fact that the metabolome of biofilms generally changes with the maturation of biofilms (Wong et al, 2018, Singhalage et al, 2018. Polysaccharides (Jiao et al, 2010), amides (O'Toole and Kolter, 1998) and fatty acids are major components of Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) of biofilms, which provide a strong and sticky framework to protect biofilms against adverse environmental conditions (Sutherland, 2001).…”