The potentiality of bacteriophage on biofilm treatment

Abstract

Bacteria can exist both in a planktonic state and within a biofilm. The bacteria remain inert within biofilm. Due to their extracellular matrix, problem arises for the effectivity of antibiotics and biocides. However, bacteriophages are found effective on targeting this common form of bacterial growth and they have enzymes to degrade the extracellular matrix. This review discusses about basic knowledge about bacteriophages and the effectivity of bacteriophages against bacterial biofilm formed by Salmonella spp, Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio cholera, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus agalactiae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Bacteriophage can eradicate Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis biofilm, and eradicate S. agalactiae through the destruction of the extracellular matrix thereby allowing antibiotics to enter into the inner layer of the biofilm and using the quorum-sensing activity restricts the formation of biofilms. In addition to that, the combined effect of bacteriophage with other compounds having anti-biofilm capability such as nanoparticles, enzymes and natural products can more effectively invade the biofilms than each of them applied alone. It was found through various methodology that the phage KTN4 immediately degraded the biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa upon its application. Furthermore, strong antibacterial capability has been shown by the KTN4 phages and the significant inhibition of toxigenic agent pyocyanin and pyoverdin produced by the P. aeruginosa proves the ability of these phages to be used in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm treatment. The phage KP34 alone and in combination with ciprofloxacin have showed significant decrease in the K. pneumoniae biofilm biomass and also the bacteria itself. Test results of the bacteriophage Sb-1 combined with several other antibiotic against 10 antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus was obtained. It was found that the best choice for creating a therapy of antibiotic with phage Sb-1 as an adjunctive agent would be the combination of Sb-1 with daptomycin either applied simultaneously or staggered manner. On the other hand, the use of bacteriophages for biofilm destruction has some limitations such as limited host range, high-density biofilm, sub-populate phage resistance in biofilm, and inhibition of phage infection via quorum sensing in biofilm.