Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Future Microbiol. 2012 Sep;7(9):1061-72. doi: 10.2217/fmb.12.76.
Bacterial biofilms are the basis of many persistent diseases. The persistence of these infections is primarily attributed to the increased antibiotic resistance exhibited by the cells within the biofilms. This resistance is multifactorial; there are multiple mechanisms of resistance that act together in order to provide an increased overall level of resistance to the biofilm. These mechanisms are based on the function of wild-type genes and are not the result of mutations. This article reviews the known mechanisms of resistance, including the ability of the biofilm matrix to prevent antibiotics from reaching the cells and the function of individual genes that are preferentially expressed in biofilms. Evidence suggests that these mechanisms have been developed as a general stress response of biofilms that enables the cells in the biofilm to respond to all of the changes in the environment that they may encounter.
细菌生物膜是许多持续性疾病的基础。这些感染的持续性主要归因于生物膜内细胞表现出的抗生素耐药性增加。这种耐药性是多因素的；有多种耐药机制共同作用，以提供对生物膜的整体水平的增加耐药性。这些机制基于野生型基因的功能，而不是突变的结果。本文综述了已知的耐药机制，包括生物膜基质阻止抗生素到达细胞的能力和在生物膜中优先表达的个别基因的功能。有证据表明，这些机制已被开发为生物膜的一般应激反应，使生物膜中的细胞能够对其可能遇到的所有环境变化做出反应。
