Novel Strategies to Combat Bacterial Biofilms

Abstract

Biofilms are considered as a severe problem in the treatment of bacterial infections; their development causes some noticeable resistance to antibacterial agents. Biofilms are responsible for at least two-thirds of all infections, displaying promoted resistance to classical antibiotic treatments. Therefore, finding new alternative therapeutic approaches is essential for the treatment and inhibition of biofilm-related infections. Therefore, this review aims to describe the potential therapeutic strategies that can inhibit bacterial biofilm development; these include the usage of antiadhesion agents, AMPs, bacteriophages, QSIs, aptamers, NPs and PNAs, which can prevent or eradicate the formation of biofilms. These antibiofilm agents represent a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of biofilm infections and development of a strong capability to interfere with different phases of the biofilm development, including adherence, polysaccharide intercellular adhesion (PIA), quorum sensing molecules and cell-to-cell connection, bacterial aggregation, planktonic bacteria killing and host-immune response modulation. In addition, these components, in combination with antibiotics, can lead to the development of some kind of powerful combined therapy against bacterial biofilm-related infections.

Keywords: Antibiofilm agents; Biofilm; Biofilm-related infections; Therapeutic approaches.