(390b) Biological Inspiration for Anti-Biofilm Strategies

In clinical environments, bacterial infections often take the form of interface-associated biofilms or otherwise aggregated communities. These communities exhibit cooperative behavior and emergent functions that confer on their constituent cells greater tolerance to antimicrobial treatments and lead to persistent infections. Methods to prevent or disrupt biofilms and bacterial aggregates, therefore, represent promising strategies to improve outcomes of conventional antimicrobial therapies and limit the spread of antibiotic resistance. Here, I will discuss molecular investigations of bacterial communication, competition, and resilience to stress involved in the establishment or maintenance of biofilms as biological inspirations for such strategies. Bacterial glycolipid surfactants induce selective permeability in bacterial membranes and exhibit cooperative antimicrobial activity with antibiotics. Iron competition between a gut pathogen and a probiotic bacterium in in vitro biofilm infection models is mediated by a molecular Trojan Horse strategy to combat piracy of secreted iron-chelating compounds. Finally, a ubiquitous biosynthetic pathway for osmotic stress response and energy storage in bacteria is critical to biofilm formation, and a small molecule inhibitor of a critical enzyme is effective in preventing biofilm development. These naturally occurring intra- and interspecies processes serve as biological inspiration for anti-biofilm and antimicrobial therapies.