Natural Products as Antibiofilm Agents

Abstract

Biofilms, are vastly structured surface-associated communities of microorganisms, enclosed within a self-produced extracellular matrix. Microorganisms, especially bacteria are able to form complex structures known as biofilms. The presence of biofilms especially in health care settings increases resistance to antimicrobial agents which poses a major health problem. This is because biofilm-associated persistent infections are difficult to treat due to the presence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. This chapter will give an idea about documented agents including isolated compounds, crude extracts, decoctions, fractions, etc. obtained from natural sources such as plants, bacteria, fungi, sponge and algae with antibiofilm activities. Furthermore, we have done phylogenetic analysis to identify plant families most prolific in producing plant species and compounds with good antibiofilm properties so as to aid in prioritizing plant species to investigate in future studies. The data in this chapter will help serve as valuable information and guidance for future antimicrobial development.

Anti-biofilm activity of marine algae-derived bioactive compounds

“…In recent years, numerous natural products have been identified as antibacterial and anti-biofilm agents (Song et al, 2018;Lu et al, 2019;Mulat et al, 2022) which can inhibit cellular adhesion, abolish the quorum sensing signaling, prevent biofilm formation, disrupt extracellular matrix (ECM) structure, and decrease the production of quorum sensingregulated virulence factors in pathogenic bacteria (Lu et al, 2019). Therefore, several research studies have been focused on natural antibiofilm agents obtained from plants, microorganisms, and marine extracts or metabolites to control human infections (Mishra et al, 2020;Danquah et al, 2022;. Among various natural products, it is well known that marine and algal bioactive compounds are utilized for prevention and treatment of bacterial biofilm (Melander et al, 2020).…”