Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum Biofilms on the Adhesion of Escherichia coli to Urinary Tract Devices

Abstract

Novel technologies to prevent biofilm formation on urinary tract devices (UTDs) are continually being developed, with the ultimate purpose of reducing the incidence of urinary infections. Probiotics have been described as having the ability to displace adhering uropathogens and inhibit microbial adhesion to UTD materials. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of pre-established Lactobacillus plantarum biofilms on the adhesion of Escherichia coli to medical-grade silicone. The optimal growth conditions of lactobacilli biofilms on silicone were first assessed in 12-well plates. Then, biofilms of L. plantarum were placed in contact with E. coli suspensions for up to 24 h under quasi-static conditions. Biofilm monitoring was performed by determining the number of culturable cells and by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Results showed significant reductions of 76%, 77% and 99% in E. coli culturability after exposure to L. plantarum biofilms for 3, 6 and 12 h, respectively, corroborating the CLSM analysis. The interactions between microbial cell surfaces and the silicone surface with and without L. plantarum biofilms were also characterized using contact angle measurements, where E. coli was shown to be thermodynamically less prone to adhere to L. plantarum biofilms than to silicone. Thus, this study suggests the use of probiotic cells as potential antibiofilm agents for urinary tract applications.

Lyophilized cell-free supernatants of Lactobacillus isolates exhibited antibiofilm, antioxidant, and reduces nitric oxide activity in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells

“…Other study from Rossoni et al (2018) reported that L. fermentum 20.4, L. paracasei 11.6, L. paracasei 20.3, and L. paracasei 25.4 produce bioactive substances that caused a significant reduction in S. mutans biofilms. Furthermore, the result similar to report from Carvalho et al (2021) , L. plantarum showed promising results against pathogenic biofilms. Some of the bacteriocins eradicate biofilms by inducing the formation of pores on the bacterial cell surface, which leads to ATP efflux, while others exert their biological activity through proteolytic enzymes ( Okuda et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Probiotics can lower cholesterol levels, boost the immune system, promote the secretion of immunoglobulin IgA, serve as antioxidants, exhibit antidiabetic properties, and suppress inflammation ( AlKalbani, Turner & Ayyash, 2019 ; De Marco et al, 2018 ; Singhal et al, 2019 ; Xu et al, 2021 ). Several studies have shown that Lactobacillus can inhibit biofilm formation by many pathogens ( Carvalho et al, 2021 ; Gómez et al., 2016 ; Ji & Yang, 2021 ; Shaaban et al., 2020 ). Other reports have shown that metabolites produced by probiotics have antivirulence activity ( Stefania et al, 2017 ).…”

Using Lactobacilli to Fight Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus Biofilms on Urinary Tract Devices

“…Probiotics can exert their antibiofilm activity by adopting different strategies: displacement, exclusion, and competition [ 47 ]. Recently, our research group evaluated the ability of L. plantarum biofilms to prevent E. coli adhesion and biofilm formation on silicone rubber, following an exclusion strategy [ 42 ]. In the present work, the potential of two probiotic strains ( L. plantarum and L. rhamnosus ) to disperse pre-formed biofilms of E. coli and S. aureus under physiologically relevant conditions was assessed by adopting a displacement strategy [ 48 ].…”

“…Biofilm formation experiments were performed on silicone coupons (1 × 1 cm; Neves & Neves, Lda, Maia, Portugal) with the intention of mimicking the most common material of urinary catheters [ 78 ]. The surfaces were prepared as previously described by Carvalho et al [ 42 ]. Briefly, the coupons were washed with 70% ( v / v ) ethanol (VWR, Radnor, PA, USA), air-dried, and then sterilized through ultra-violet (UV) radiation for 30 min.…”

“…Bacteriocins are a particular class of exometabolites produced by probiotics and are substantially documented to inhibit the growth of competitors [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Probiotics can also compete for adhesion sites by forming non-pathogenic biofilms that hamper the adhesion and biofilm formation of pathogens [ 41 , 42 ]. Each probiotic strain has multiple and diverse impacts on the host [ 36 ].…”