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Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells

Biofilms are viscoelastic materials that are a prominent public health problem and a cause of most chronic bacterial infections, in large part due to their resistance to clearance by the immune system. Viscoelastic materials combine both solid-like and fluid-like mechanics, and the viscoelastic prop...

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Autores principales: Wells, Marilyn, Schneider, Rebecca, Bhattarai, Bikash, Currie, Hailey, Chavez, Bella, Christopher, Gordon, Rumbaugh, Kendra, Gordon, Vernita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1102199
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author Wells, Marilyn
Schneider, Rebecca
Bhattarai, Bikash
Currie, Hailey
Chavez, Bella
Christopher, Gordon
Rumbaugh, Kendra
Gordon, Vernita
author_facet Wells, Marilyn
Schneider, Rebecca
Bhattarai, Bikash
Currie, Hailey
Chavez, Bella
Christopher, Gordon
Rumbaugh, Kendra
Gordon, Vernita
author_sort Wells, Marilyn
collection PubMed
description Biofilms are viscoelastic materials that are a prominent public health problem and a cause of most chronic bacterial infections, in large part due to their resistance to clearance by the immune system. Viscoelastic materials combine both solid-like and fluid-like mechanics, and the viscoelastic properties of biofilms are an emergent property of the intercellular cohesion characterizing the biofilm state (planktonic bacteria do not have an equivalent property). However, how the mechanical properties of biofilms are related to the recalcitrant disease that they cause, specifically to their resistance to phagocytic clearance by the immune system, remains almost entirely unstudied. We believe this is an important gap that is ripe for a large range of investigations. Here we present an overview of what is known about biofilm infections and their interactions with the immune system, biofilm mechanics and their potential relationship with phagocytosis, and we give an illustrative example of one important biofilm-pathogen (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) which is the most-studied in this context. We hope to inspire investment and growth in this relatively-untapped field of research, which has the potential to reveal mechanical properties of biofilms as targets for therapeutics meant to enhance the efficacy of the immune system.
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spelling pubmed-99787522023-03-03 Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells Wells, Marilyn Schneider, Rebecca Bhattarai, Bikash Currie, Hailey Chavez, Bella Christopher, Gordon Rumbaugh, Kendra Gordon, Vernita Front Cell Infect Microbiol Cellular and Infection Microbiology Biofilms are viscoelastic materials that are a prominent public health problem and a cause of most chronic bacterial infections, in large part due to their resistance to clearance by the immune system. Viscoelastic materials combine both solid-like and fluid-like mechanics, and the viscoelastic properties of biofilms are an emergent property of the intercellular cohesion characterizing the biofilm state (planktonic bacteria do not have an equivalent property). However, how the mechanical properties of biofilms are related to the recalcitrant disease that they cause, specifically to their resistance to phagocytic clearance by the immune system, remains almost entirely unstudied. We believe this is an important gap that is ripe for a large range of investigations. Here we present an overview of what is known about biofilm infections and their interactions with the immune system, biofilm mechanics and their potential relationship with phagocytosis, and we give an illustrative example of one important biofilm-pathogen (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) which is the most-studied in this context. We hope to inspire investment and growth in this relatively-untapped field of research, which has the potential to reveal mechanical properties of biofilms as targets for therapeutics meant to enhance the efficacy of the immune system. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9978752/ /pubmed/36875516 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1102199 Text en Copyright © 2023 Wells, Schneider, Bhattarai, Currie, Chavez, Christopher, Rumbaugh and Gordon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Wells, Marilyn
Schneider, Rebecca
Bhattarai, Bikash
Currie, Hailey
Chavez, Bella
Christopher, Gordon
Rumbaugh, Kendra
Gordon, Vernita
Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title_full Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title_fullStr Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title_full_unstemmed Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title_short Perspective: The viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
title_sort perspective: the viscoelastic properties of biofilm infections and mechanical interactions with phagocytic immune cells
topic Cellular and Infection Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1102199
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