The endotracheal tube (ETT) affords support for intubated patients, but the increasing incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is jeopardizing its application. ETT surfaces promote (poly)microbial colonization and biofilm formation, with a heavy burden for VAP. Devising safe, broad-spectrum antimicrobial materials to tackle the ETT bioburden is needful. Herein, we immobilized ciprofloxacin (CIP) and/...
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an unresolved problem in nosocomial settings, remaining consistently associated with a lack of treatment, high mortality, and prolonged hospital stay in mechanically ventilated patients. The endotracheal tube (ETT) is the major culprit for VAP development owing to its early surface microbial colonization and biofilm formation by multiple pathogens, both critical events f...
Antimicrobial therapy is facing a worrisome and underappreciated challenge, the phenomenon of heteroresistance (HR). HR has been gradually documented in clinically relevant pathogens (e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Burkholderia spp., Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Candida spp.) towards several drugs and is believed to complicate the clinical picture of chronic infections. T...
This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors also acknowledge the support, through the Programa Operacional Competitivid...
Introduction: The lack of reproducibility of published experimental studies is one of the major issues facing science today, and the field of biofilm research is no exception. While many factors contribute to this phenomenon, selective or insufficient reporting of experimental details in the published literature is one of the more significant causes. Hypothesis and aims: One effective strategy to improve reprod...
Introduction: Mixed bacterial-fungal colonization of the endotracheal tubes is now evident, with microbial interplay withstanding common antimicrobial therapy and paying for persistent and severe VAP infections. While alternative therapeutic strategies effectively targeting inter-kingdom biofilms are required, the role of each microorganism need to be appraised to deliver effective treatments. Hypothesis and ai...
Biofilms are responsible for most of the interference caused by microorganisms in food processing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) essential oil and eugenol sanitizer and anti-biofilm activity against biofilms. Concentrations used of essential oil were 0.0% (control) 0.12%; 0.48%; 0.96% and 1.92%; the amount of eugenol was 0.76%. Concentrations were determined from oth...
The polymicrobial nature of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is now evident, with mixed bacterial-fungal biofilms colonizing the VAP endotracheal tube (ETT) surface. The microbial interplay within this infection may contribute for enhanced pathogenesis and exert impact towards antimicrobial therapy. Consequently, the high mortality/morbidity rates associated to VAP and the worldwide increase in antibiotic ...
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb. 2016.02146/full#supplementary-material; Cystic Fibrosis (CF) airways disease involves complex polymicrobial infections where different bacterial species can interact and influence each other and/or even interfere with the whole community. To gain insights into the role that interactions betw...
EUROBIOFILMS 2017 - 5th European Congress on Microbial Biofilms; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the strategic funding UID/BIO/04469/2013 and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER -006684). This study was also supported by FCT and European Community fund FEDER, through Program COMPETE, and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by European Regional Develo...