Evaluating antibiotics for use in medicine using a poloxamer biofilm model

Clutterbuck, Abi L, Cochrane, Christine A, Dolman, Jayne and Percival, Steven L (2007) Evaluating antibiotics for use in medicine using a poloxamer biofilm model. Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials, 6.

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Abstract

Background: Wound infections, due to biofilms, are a constant problem because of their recalcitrant nature towards antibiotics. Appropriate antibiotic selection for the treatment of these biofilm infections is important. The traditional in vitro disc diffusion method for antibiotic selection uses bacterial cultures grown on agar plates. However, the form of bacterial growth on agar is not representative of how bacteria grow in wounds and other tissue sites as here bacteria grow naturally in a biofilm. The aim of this research was to test a more appropriate method for testing antimicrobial efficacy on biofilms and compare with the standard methods used for antibiotic sensitivity testing. Methods: Outer Membrane Protein analysis was performed on E.coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis and Acinetobacter juni when grown on Mueller Hinton agar ('quasi-biofilm state') and 30% Poloxamer hydrogel ('true- biofilm state). Susceptibility to antibiotics on 28 clinical isolates was determined using the modified Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method, on agar and 30% Poloxamer. Results: Similar outer membrane proteins [OMPs] were identified in bacteria grown in a biofilm state and on a 30% poloxamer hydrogel, which were very different to the OMPs identified in bacteria grown on Mueller-Hinton agar and broth. There was a significant difference between the means of the clearance zones around the antibiotic discs on standard agar and poloxamer gels [P 0.05]. Conclusion: The findings of this experiment suggest that poloxamer gel could be used as an appropriate medium on which to conduct biofilm antibiotic susceptibility tests as it enables bacteria to be grown in a state representative of the infected surface from which the culture was taken.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Published: 15 February 2007. 10 pages (page numbers not for citation purposes).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Wound infections, Biofilms, antiobiotic sensititivity testing, Outer Membrane Protein, poloxamer gel
Subjects:	?? R1 ?? ?? QR ??
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences > School of Veterinary Science
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	27 Jun 2008 13:48
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2022 01:14
DOI:	10.1186/1476-0711-6-2
Publisher's Statement :	© 2007 Clutterbuck et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/730