Filamentous Non-albicans Candida Species Adhere to Candida albicans and Benefit From Dual Biofilm Growth

Abstract

Non- albicans Candida species (NACS) are often isolated along with Candida albicans in cases of oropharyngeal candidiasis. C. albicans readily forms biofilms in conjunction with other oral microbiota including both bacteria and yeast. Adhesion between species is important to the establishment of these mixed biofilms, but interactions between C. albicans and many NACS are not well-characterized. We adapted a real-time flow biofilm model to study adhesion interactions and biofilm establishment in C. albicans and NACS in mono- and co-culture. Out of five NACS studied, only the filamenting species C. tropicalis and C. dubliniensis were capable of adhesion with C. albicans , while C. parapsilosis, C. lusitaniae, and C. krusei were not. Over the early phase (0–4 h) of biofilm development, both mono- and co-culture followed similar kinetics of attachment and detachment events, indicating that initial biofilm formation is not influenced by inter-species interactions. However, the NACS showed a preference for inter-species cell-cell interactions with C. albicans , and at later time points (5–11 h) we found that dual-species interactions impacted biofilm surface coverage. Dual-species biofilms of C. tropicalis and C. albicans grew more slowly than C. albicans alone, but achieved higher surface coverage than C. tropicalis alone. Biofilms of C. dubliniensis with C. albicans increased surface coverage more rapidly than either species alone. We conclude that dual culture biofilm of C. albicans with C. tropicalis or C. dubliniensis offers a growth advantage for both NACS. Furthermore, the growth and maintenance, but not initial establishment, of dual-species biofilms is likely facilitated by interspecies cell-cell adherence.

Dynamics of Mono- and Dual-Species Biofilm Formation and Interactions Between Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and Candida albicans

“…However, under certain conditions, especially those related to immune suppression or even in neonates or elderly, there is an increase in Candida carriage in the oral cavity that ultimately leads to the development of opportunistic mucosal infections ( Nicolatou-Galitis et al, 2001 ; Bertolini and Dongari-Bagtzoglou, 2019 ). In this context, many studies have reported inter-kingdom Candida -bacterial interactions in the oral cavity, as well as Candida-Candida interactions and their role in oral diseases, especially at the mucosal sites ( Baena-Monroy et al, 2005 ; Thein et al, 2009 ; Martins et al, 2016 ; Negrini et al, 2019 ; Pathirana et al, 2019 ; Rodrigues et al, 2019 ). Moreover, Paracoccidioides spp.…”

How Biofilm Growth Affects Candida-Host Interactions

“…In addition to forming polymicrobial biofilms with bacteria, C.albicans also establishes mixed-species biofilms with other Candida (Pathirana et al, 2019;Tati et al, 2016;Vipulanandan et al, 2018). One common clinical example of this is oropharyngeal candidiasis, which often involves multiple Candida species (Redding, 2001).…”

“…Co-culture of the organisms lead to upregulation of C. glabrata cell surface proteins that allow for adhesion to C. albicans hyphae ( Tati et al, 2016 ). Additional examples of species involved in mixed-species biofilms include C. dubliniensis and C. tropicalis , both of which appear to adhere to C. albicans and exhibit a growth benefit ( Pathirana et al, 2019 ). When co-cultured together, these species form biofilms that achieve higher surface coverage.…”

Suppressive effects of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC)-polymer on the adherence of Candida species and MRSA to acrylic denture resin

“…Recently, it was reported that C. glabrata in some clinical isolates did not show NETs formation, which may be correlated with the high mortality rates in infected patients [16]. C. tropicalis is capable of adhesion with C. albicans and a dual culture biofilm of C. albicans with C. tropicalis offers a growth advantage for C. tropicalis [17]. C. tropicalis also has reduced susceptibility to azoles [11].…”