Strong Shear Flow Persister Bacteria Resist Mechanical Washings on the Surfaces of Various Polymer Materials

Abstract

Environmental bacteria persistently exist in hospitals and thereby often contaminate biomedical devices, which usually causes device‐associated infections that have become a major cause of patient illness and death in the hospital. In this study, for the first time, the identification of strong shear flow persister (SSP) cells in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is reported. Unlike common persister cells that are highly tolerant to antibiotics, it is reported that the SSP cells can resist mechanical washings on the surfaces of various polymer materials and can form distinctive biofilms that are tolerant to high doses of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Most importantly, a general molecular mechanism is revealed by which an outer membrane protein crosslinks with polysaccharides to form gel‐like adhesion complexes that can exert extremely strong adhesion strength (up to 50 N mm−2). Therefore, these findings are urgently required for ongoing research focused on preparing antifouling biomedical materials.

CdrA Interactions within the Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Matrix Safeguard It from Proteolysis and Promote Cellular Packing

“…For example, optimal biofilm formation in Vibrio cholerae requires the production of matrix proteins (RbmA, Bap1, and RbmC) and Vibrio polysaccharide (VPS) ( 47 ), and RbmA and VPS have been shown to interact within the matrix ( 48 , 49 ). Past explanations of the necessity of multibiomolecular matrices have included studies of the improved material properties of protein-polysaccharide blends in comparison to matrices composed of only a single material ( 50 – 52 ).…”

Programming the lifestyles of engineered bacteria for cancer therapy

“…And the synthesis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) forms sticky and tangled fibers that connect bacteria cells to each other and to various surface[58]. Thus, we speculate that the biofilm lifestyle acts as a defense barrier that protects the bacteria embedded in the EPS matrix against innate host defense[59] and shear caused by fluid flow[60]. In addition, EPS produced on the surface of cancer cells inhibits the adhesion of cancer cells to endothelial cells, resulting in metastasis disruption[42, 61].…”

Early biofilm and streamer formation is mediated by wall shear stress and surface wettability: a multifactorial microfluidic study

“…It was shown that this subpopulation of P. aeruginosa resistant cells was selected by flow, creating strong shear flow persister (SSP) cells. Next to this, Zhang et al, (2017) found that their results indicated the SSP cells can readily form on both hydrophobic (PTFE) and hydrophilic surfaces (clean glass), suggesting that the wettability of surface does not have an impact on SSP formation. In our study, streamer formation was also present on all surfaces at the highest τ w regardless of species and surface type.…”

“…Kim et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2013), the comparatively short run time of the experiments in the current work means that the effects of confinement on streamer formation can be considered negligible. Interestingly, a recent study by Zhang et al, (2017) found that at shear stresses exceeding 200 Pa, up to 25% of P. aeruginosa cells adhered tenaciously on a range of tested surfaces even at shear stresses as high as 2000 Pa. It was shown that this subpopulation of P. aeruginosa resistant cells was selected by flow, creating strong shear flow persister (SSP) cells.…”