Polymicrobial Interactions: Impact on Pathogenesis and Human Disease

Abstract

SUMMARY Microorganisms coexist in a complex milieu of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses on or within the human body, often as multifaceted polymicrobial biofilm communities at mucosal sites and on abiotic surfaces. Only recently have we begun to appreciate the complicated biofilm phenotype during infection; moreover, even less is known about the interactions that occur between microorganisms during polymicrobial growth and their implications in human disease. Therefore, this review focuses on polymicrobial biofilm-mediated infections and examines the contribution of bacterial-bacterial, bacterial-fungal, and bacterial-viral interactions during human infection and potential strategies for protection against such diseases.

Mixed biofilms formed by C. albicans and non-albicans species: a study of microbial interactions

“…16 Some microorganisms have evolved mutualistic or even synergistic interactions to facilitate cohabitation on epithelial surfaces and to utilize metabolic by-products efficiently, whereas others have developed competitive antagonistic approaches during colonization. 23 Species of the genus Candida are the most prevalent fungal pathogens in the oral cavity, and their ability to form biofilms is associated with their virulence. 24 Candida albicans is considered the most important species, and is found in approximately 70% of oral infections.…”

“…7 In addition, biofilm formation and coaggregation effects allow competing microorganisms to maximize the colonization surface area in an environment that is highly competitive for space and nutrients. 23 To date, most previous studies have focused on analyzing biofilm formation by counting CFU/mL; however, Seneviratne et al 10 suggest that biofilm development results should be analyzed by more than one method. In this study, in addition to colony counting, we used an XTT reduction assay that permits measurement of the metabolic activity of the microbial eukaryotic population present in biofilms.…”

Bacterial competition and quorum‐sensing signalling shape the eco‐evolutionary outcomes of model in vitro phage therapy

“…Recent studies have shown that bacteria and phages can rapidly coevolve during model phage therapy treatments (Betts, Vasse, Kaltz, & Hochberg, 2013; Friman et al., 2016) and that the diversity of phage communities can affect the bacterial resistance evolution (Betts, Gifford, MacLean, & King, 2016; Hall, De Vos, Friman, Pirnay, & Buckling, 2012). Besides rapid coevolution, further complications could arise from interspecific bacterial competition due to polymicrobial nature of bacterial infections: many human infections contain multiple different pathogenic bacterial and other microbial species (Peters, Jabra‐Rizk, O'May, Costerton, & Shirtliff, 2012). Considerable genotypic variation also exists between different strains of a pathogen, and this variation is known to differ between different patients and to affect the pathogen susceptibility to phages (Debarbieux et al., 2010; Essoh et al., 2013; Friman, Ghoul, Molin, Johansen, & Buckling, 2013).…”

Enabling systematic, harmonised and large-scale biofilms data computation: The Biofilms Experiment Workbench

“…Infectious diseases are a major worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality, and biofilm formation stands out as a key virulence factor contributing to the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance traits in chronic and nosocomial infections [1][2][3][4]. Pneumonia in cystic fibrosis patients, chronic wounds, and catheter-associated infections are meaningful examples of biofilm-based infections.…”