What is biofilm infection?
Biofilm infections, such as pneumonia in cystic fibrosis patients, chronic wounds, chronic otitis media and implant- and catheter-associated infections, affect millions of people in the developed world each year and many deaths occur as a consequence. In general, bacteria have two life forms during growth and proliferation.
What is the importance of biofilms in soil?
biofilms attached to particles of contaminated soils and aquatic sediments help degrade soil-bound contaminants occurring from accidental chemical releases. biofilms attached to the plant roots of some crops help cycle nutrients to and from the plant, resulting in increased agricultural productivity.
Why are biofilms so difficult to destroy?
Reason biofilms are so difficult to destroy - persister cells cause 1000x tolerance to antimicrobials and give rise to recurrent infections Quorum Sensing Bacterial communication system that uses cell-to-cell signals (AUTOINDUCERS) to communicate; sense density of same bacteria in an area and coordinate gene expression to build biofilm
What are the stages of biofilm formation?
formation of biofilm is temporal process involving transition through distinct stages of multicellular organization. stages: planktonic, attachment, microcolony formation, macrocolony, and dispersal.
How can biofilms complicate treatment of infectious diseases?
Biofilms increase the chance of gene transfer by the help of virulence factors and antibiotic-resistant genes from resistant to susceptible bacterial species, which leads to antibiotic resistance [52,53].
Why are biofilms difficult to treat with antibiotics?
Bacterial biofilms cause chronic infections because they show increased tolerance to antibiotics and disinfectant chemicals as well as resisting phagocytosis and other components of the body's defence system.
How do biofilms relate to medical treatment?
The effects of biofilms are seen primarily in 4 ways by facilitating the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance, generating chronic infections, the modulation of host immune response, and the contamination of medical devices.
Why are biofilms of concern to medicine quizlet?
Biofilms are commonly found on surfaces in nature and in the human body, where they may be beneficial or cause severe infections. Pathogens associated with biofilms are often more resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants.
Why does a biofilm make it harder to eradicate a bacterial infection?
They are hard to eradicate because they secrete a matrix made of sugar molecules which form a kind of armour that acts as a physical and chemical barrier, preventing antibiotics from reaching their target sites within microbes.
Why are biofilms a problem?
Biofilms pose a serious problem for public health because of the increased resistance of biofilm-associated organisms to antimicrobial agents and the potential for these organisms to cause infections in patients with indwelling medical devices.
What are the disadvantages of biofilms?
The major disadvantage of biofilms include, high corrosivity, and lack of machine stability. Biodispersants are designed to ensure that microorganisms are dispersed into the process water. They are effective in performing a function using a multiple of mechanisms, and are treated as a substitute to a biocide.
What medical challenges do biofilms present?
Biofilm infections constitute a number of clinical challenges, including diseases involving uncultivable species, chronic inflammation, impaired wound healing, rapidly acquired antibiotic resistance, and the spread of infectious emboli.
Why are biofilms a concern with hospital acquired infections?
A biofilm can provide bacteria with resistance to antibiotics, which can usually kill individual bacteria (Figure 1). As a biofilm, some bacteria can still live, multiply, and cause infections—even in the presence of antibiotics.
Why are infections that involve biofilms a concern quizlet?
Diseases that involve biofilm-producing bacteria are of serious concern. They are not as easily treated compared with those involving free-floating (or planktonic) bacteria.
What is a biofilm and what role does biofilm play in disease quizlet?
The term biofilm is used to denote a polymer-encased community of microbes which accumulates at a surface. Biofilms are responsible for a number of diseases of man and, because of the intrinsic resistance of these structures to antibiotics and host defence systems, such diseases are very difficult to treat effectively.
What are biofilms and why are they important quizlet?
biofilms can be used to produce a wide variety of biochemicals that are then purified and utilized for public good, including medicines, food additives, or chemical additives for cleaning products. formation of biofilm is temporal process involving transition through distinct stages of multicellular organization.
How long have pathogenic bacteria been studied?
Acute infections caused by pathogenic bacteria have been studied extensively for well over 100 years. These infections killed millions of people in previous centuries, but they have been combated effectively by the development of modern vaccines, antibiotics and infection control measures. Most research into bacterial pathogenesis has focused on ...
What is the term for bacteria growing in slime?
Most research into bacterial pathogenesis has focused on acute infections, but these diseases have now been supplemented by a new category of chronic infections caused by bacteria growing in slime-enclosed aggregates known as biofilms.
How many life forms do bacteria have?
In general, bacteria have two life forms during growth and proliferation. In one form, the bacteria exist as single, independent cells (planktonic) whereas in the other form, bacteria are organized into sessile aggregates. The latter form is commonly referred to as the biofilm growth phenotype.
Do bacteria have a similar lifestyle?
Bacteria have a similar lifestyle (the biofilm) in both habitats, but the fight for survival and supremacy is different. On the basis of this comparison, I will hypothesize how chronic biofilm infections are initiated and how bacteria live together in these infections.