Sabrina Z. Siddiqui, Casandra Kruczek, Jane A. Colmer-Hamood, Matthew Myntti and Abdul N. Hamood
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) constitute about 40% of health-care associated infections in the United States. It is estimated that about 15% to 25% of hospitalized patients receive a urethral catheter at some point during hospitalization predisposing them to the development of CAUTI. Pathogenic bacteria colonize the surface of the catheter and develop highly resistant structures termed biofilms which protect them from the effects of diverse antibiotics. Escherichia coli are among the main causative agents of CAUTI. Due to the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains, it is critical to develop new novel antimicrobial agents. We recently showed that a novel anti-biofilm agent, Next Science, inhibited biofilm development by wound pathogens. In this study, we tried to determine if treating urinary tract catheters (UTC) with NS prevents the development if E. coli biofilms.
Three types of UTCs were cut into small pieces that were treated with NS. Biofilm development by an E. coli laboratory strain and several E. coli clinical isolates on treated and untreated pieces was accomplished using the microtiter plate assay. Biofilms developed on inner and outer surfaces of the catheters were quantified by determining the number of microorganisms (colony forming units) on each piece and visualized using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM).
In comparison with untreated catheters, all three types of NS-treated catheters prevented biofilm development by tested E. coli strains. In addition, CLSM demonstrated the presence of E. coli biofilms on the inner and outer surfaces of the untreated but not treated catheters. Our results suggest that NS is a novel antimicrobial treatment to prevent biofilm development by pathogenic E. coli strains on UTCs.
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