Opinion - (2022) Volume 3, Issue 1
Biofilms are microorganisms, growths, or yeasts that form heterogeneous substances on a natural or nonorganic surface. Biofilm formation is a significant concern in the healthcare, food, and marine industries, and it can cause serious economic and medical problems. A biofilm's diverse microbial population is particularly resistant to antibiotics, resulting in long-term survival that is difficult to achieve. Biofilms can be controlled in a variety of ways, including physical and mechanical expulsion, synthetic evacuation, and the use of antimicrobials and nanoparticles to destroy biofilm organisms.
Biofilm is a microbial population or association that is adherent to biotic or abiotic surfaces or habitats. +ese surface-attached microbial populations can be found in a variety of settings, including food, medicine, industry, and nature. Biofilm is a severe concern in the medical field because it forms on medical devices and infects human tissue, causing a variety of dangerous chronic infections. Where there are sufficient nutrients for microbial growth and adhesion, food and food processing surfaces provide excellent environments for biofilm formation.
Foodborne pathogen contamination is a severe public health hazard that can lead to foodborne illnesses. Foodborne infections are still a major public health concern, with an estimated 600 million people being ill each year. Food contamination from environmental, animal, or human causes can occur at any point in the farm-to-fork chain, resulting in foodborne illness and intoxication. The production of biofilms by foodborne pathogens is unavoidable and can lead to food contamination. Bacterial biofilm development is a common microbial lifestyle in both natural and man-made environments, and it occurs on a variety of surfaces. Biofilms are one of the most common and successful life forms on the planet. Microorganisms frequently live in highly moist biofilms in nature, which provide a favourable environment for cells to cling to one another and to a variety of surfaces. Microbial attachment and biofilm formation are optimal in food and food processing settings.
Pathogenic microbes can adhere to food surfaces, grow on them, and create a biofilm, increasing the risk of food contamination. Foodborne disease outbreaks, particularly those involving Listeria mono-cytogeneses and Salmonella, have been linked to poor sanitation of food-contact surfaces, equipment, and processing settings. Food residues can linger in food processing due to insufficient and inadequate cleaning techniques, which can enable bacterial attachment and biofilm formation. Medical implants, oil recovery, drinking-water distribution, papermaking, metallurgy, and food processing all have economic and environmental ramifications due to the microbes biofilm resilience. The biofilm process is also responsible for bacterial adhesion in the food and dairy sectors, which are well-known concerns. Antimicrobial agents attack a variety of hereditary material, enzymes, the respiratory system, and other cellular locations. However, different bacteria react differently to bactericides due to genetic exchanges and inherent differences such as exclusive cell envelope makeup and non-susceptible protein. Bacterial biofilms have developed antibiotic resistance and are linked to a variety of chronic illnesses. Several processes inside biofilm impart multi-factorial antibiotic resistance.
The production of biofilms has been linked to a rise in antibiotic resistance. Biofilms of K. pneumonia have been discovered, particularly in hospital settings and on catheters. K. pneumonia is protected from antibiotic treatments by the biofilm. This protection, which was first considered to be due to antibiotic molecules restricted penetration, is instead due to the biofilm's delayed proliferation of cells in the centre.
Biofilm Development Stages
Biofilm is a group of microorganisms that are securely adhered to a biotic or abiotic surface, enclosed in an Extracellular Polymeric Substance (EPS) matrix, and can exhibit novel gene expression, protein synthesis, growth rate, and metabolic activities.
Surface conditions, chemical and physical growth stimuli, cellular architectures, and any other difficulties can all have an impact on biofilm formation. Its fate is determined by the interaction of these and other elements. After cells have been adhered to conditioned surfaces, physiological changes occur. Antibiotics and sanitising agents cannot pass through the barrier created by structural polymeric compounds.
Microbial cells in a biofilm are close enough to communicate with one another via chemicals, allowing them to coordinate and respond to any ecological, environmental, or host-related inputs. Biofilm development is usually considered as a cooperative business, where strains and species work together for a similar objective.
Gram-positive bacteria, as well as Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria's autoinducer-2 (AI-2) for a distinct function. The Quorum Sensing (QS) system is a method by which bacteria adjust gene expression profiles based on the size of the microbial population, resulting in the creation of various biofilm types. Quorum sensing is a broad term for the mechanism by which bacteria make and detect signal molecules, allowing them to coordinate their behaviour in a density-dependent manner. In addition to communication, these tight interactions allow microbial communities to exchange genetic material, and the frequency of gene transfer is even higher than in their natural state.
Attachment (Initial or Reversible)
Bacterial surface attachment represents a turning point from planktonic life to the biofilm mode. Reversible attachment involves an interaction of planktonic microorganisms with a conditioned surface. But the interaction is very weak which involves van der Waals, electrostatic forces and hydrophobic interactions. It has been reported that the attachment will be best on surfaces that are rough, hydrophobic, and coated with different organic substance. Bacterial structures such as the fimbriae, pili and flagella give strength to the interaction between bacteria and the surface of attachment.
Irreversible Attachment
Loosely bound organisms cement the attachment process at this step by creating extracellular polymeric compounds that interact with surface materials and receptor-specific ligands on pili, fimbriae, and fibrillae, or both. Following attachment of microorganisms to preconditioned and receptive surfaces, the cell begins an irreversible adhesion process that results in multi-layered cell clusters. According to recent research, biofilm formation begins with a layer of Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) on which microbial cells swarm, followed by the expansion of the biofilm. A number of physiological and anatomical changes have happened during this step, including no motility of the connected cells.
Micro Colony Formation
Micro colonies are formed when microbial cells anchored within the extracellular matrix proliferate in a coordinated community. Micro colony formation, according to Dunne, is caused by the simultaneous aggregation and growth of microorganisms, as well as the creation of EPS. Micro colonies, which are the fundamental units of biofilm, are divided into channels with varied microenvironments. After cells are securely adhered to conductive surfaces, a slew of bacteria emerge and exude polymeric compounds that act as "glue" to hold germs to various surfaces. Micro colonies are formed as a result of these consecutive occurrences.
Antibiotic Tolerance in Biofilms
When compared to planktonic cells of the same strain, biofilms are naturally more resistant to antimicrobial treatment. According to several research, bacteria developing in biofilms are thousands of times more resistant to antimicrobial treatment than planktonic germs. While the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in planktonic bacteria are well understood,they do not appearto be the primary source of biofilm-mediated antibiotic tolerance, according to Wallander. When fundamentally drug vulnerable bacterial strains are in the biofilm mode of life, they typically demonstrate high antibiotic tolerance; nevertheless, when biofilm-residing cells are dispersed (released) from the main community, antimicrobial sensitivity is soon restored. As a result, alternative pathways to bacterial antimicrobial resistance are likely to be involved in Biofilm Antibiotic Tolerance (BAT).
Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms in Biofilms
Different mechanisms have been investigated that are thought to be important elements in biofilms high resilience. Limited diffusion, enzymecaused neutralizations, heterogeneous functions, sluggish growth rate, presence of persistent (non-dividing) cells, and Biofilm phenotype such as efflux pump and membrane modification are examples of these mechanisms.
Antibiotic Penetration is Limited
Antibiotics can diffuse through the biofilm's matrix. Exopolysaccharide, which acts as a physical barrier, affects the distribution or penetration of antibiotics into deeper levels of biofilm. When molecules interact directly with this matrix, their passage into the biofilm interior is slowed, resulting in antibiotic resistance. High molecular weight compounds like complement system proteins and lysozyme may be hampered as a result, and in liquid culture, bacterial cells are more easily exposed to antibiotics than compact structure biofilms. Bacteria are easily attacked by immune system cells when they escape from biofilms that do not manufacture polysaccharide. When an antibiotic binds to the biofilm matrix, it becomes inactive. P. aeruginosa produces anionic alginate exo-polysaccharide.
Cells Slow Growth Rate
Microorganisms develop slowly due to a lack of nutrition, resulting in antibiotic resistance. Both penicillin and ampicillin kill bacterial cells only when they are developing lactams, aminoglycosides, cephalosporin, and fluoroquinolones are some other antibiotics that assault cells in the stationary phase.
The Impact of Biofilm on Antibiotic Resistance
The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria is one of the world's most serious health issues. One of the implications of the bacterial biofilm communities that lead to persistent illnesses is antibiotic resistance. Biofilm-forming Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) bacteria that affects people and is a leading cause of hospital infections, which are linked with significant morbidity and mortality due to restricted treatment choices. Biofilm development has been described as a way for bacteria to avoid harmful environmental impacts such as antibiotics and antimicrobial agents.
When compared to planktonic bacteria, bacteria within a biofilm are several orders of magnitude more resistant to antibiotics. Biofilms, for example, can resist antimicrobial drugs at 10-1000 times the doses required to inactivate genetically similar planktonic bacteria. Biofilms are resistant to antimicrobial treatments due to their structure and other physiological changes such as sluggish growth rate.
There is a high rate of mutation in biofilm-forming bacteria, which allows them to acquire resistance mechanisms. This, in turn, allows their genes to generate enzymes that inactivate antibiotics or expel drugs through efflux pumps. Bacteria in biofilms develop persister cells, which are metabolically inert. This is one of their ways for evading antibiotics, and they can even survive in high antibiotic concentrations. Biofilm is a key factor in antibiotic resistance spreading. Horizontal transfer of resistance and virulence genes occurs efficiently within the high-density bacterial population. The matrix contains an excessive quantity of microorganisms, resulting in intimate contact between diverse microorganisms.
The Effects of Biofilm on Food Contamination
Food contamination by pathogenic microorganisms has been a major public health issue as well as a source of significant economic losses around the world. Microbial biofilms include both food spoilage and disease-causing bacteria, resulting in post processing contamination that reduces product quality and shelf life while also potentially allowing disease transmission. In beef fabrication facilities, for example, Escherichia coli O157: H7 adhered to beef-contact surfaces could be a source of cross-contamination. Staphylococcus aurous and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, for example, are capable of forming biofilms on materials and equipment.
From a hygienic standpoint, pathogenic bacteria adhering to foodcontact surfaces can cause sanitation issues since they can survive in hostile environments for long periods of time and serve as a reservoir for contamination. Cronobacter sakazakii has been shown to cling to a variety of surfaces, including silicon, latex, polycarbonate, stainless steel, glass, and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), according to study. The adhesion and confinement of microorganisms within micro scale voids of surface roughness allows biofilm formation on stainless steel surfaces of food processing plants, leading to foodborne illness outbreaks (grooves, scratches). Microorganisms adhering to the food preparation surface have the potential to create biofilm and constitute a cause of contamination.
The production of biofilms by bacteria and the resulting resistance to antibiotics is a slow but steady process that poses a severe danger to public and household health. Biofilm production is now a common occurrence not only in human infections, but also in non-biological situations. Biofilms occur on food and water, both of which are considered basic requirements of life. Biofilm prevention is now limited to the use of antimicrobial drugs, with post-infection treatment consisting of surgical removal of the biofilm followed by on-going antibiotic therapy.
In the medical field, biofilm-forming microbes are a severe problem. Biofilm-forming bacteria are wrapped in a matrix that protects them from antibiotics and the immune system of the host. Biofilm-forming bacteria can experience physiological changes such as sluggish growth and the production of persistent cells in addition to having structural barriers. Antibiotics are unable to suppress, kill, or destroy these slow-growing, persistent cells located inside the biofilm matrix in these circumstances. As a result of biofilms resistance to antimicrobial therapy, persistent infections caused by biofilms are generally difficult to cure effectively.
Citation: Jackson N. Biofilm's Impact on Antibiotics Resistance. Int J Inn Res Sci Eng Tech, 2022, 3(1), 002-003
Received: 25-Dec-2021, Manuscript No. IJIRSET-22-52415; Editor assigned: 05-Jan-2022, Pre QC No. IJIRSET-22-52415(PQ); Reviewed: 12-Jan-2022, QC No. IJIRSET-22-52415(QC); Revised: 21-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. IJIRSET-22-52415(R); Published: 31-Jan-2022, DOI: 10.37533/ijirset.3.1.02-03
Copyright: © 2022 Noah Jackson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
