Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2RX, UK.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
Cells. 2020 Nov 10;9(11):2450. doi: 10.3390/cells9112450.
Bacterial keratitis is a corneal infection which may cause visual impairment or even loss of the infected eye. It remains a major cause of blindness in the developing world. and are common causative agents and these bacterial species are known to colonise the corneal surface as biofilm populations. Biofilms are complex bacterial communities encased in an extracellular polymeric matrix and are notoriously difficult to eradicate once established. Biofilm bacteria exhibit different phenotypic characteristics from their planktonic counterparts, including an increased resistance to antibiotics and the host immune response. Therefore, understanding the role of biofilms will be essential in the development of new ophthalmic antimicrobials. A brief overview of biofilm-specific resistance mechanisms is provided, but this is a highly multifactorial and rapidly expanding field that warrants further research. Progression in this field is dependent on the development of suitable biofilm models that acknowledge the complexity of the ocular environment. Abiotic models of biofilm formation (where biofilms are studied on non-living surfaces) currently dominate the literature, but co-culture infection models are beginning to emerge. , and corneal infection models have now been reported which use a variety of different experimental techniques and animal models. In this review, we will discuss existing corneal infection models and their application in the study of biofilms and host-pathogen interactions at the corneal surface.
细菌性角膜炎是一种角膜感染，可能导致视力损害，甚至感染眼睛丧失。它仍然是发展中国家失明的主要原因。 和 是常见的病原体，这些细菌物种已知在角膜表面形成生物膜群体。生物膜是一种复杂的细菌群落，被包裹在细胞外聚合物基质中，一旦形成，就很难根除。生物膜细菌表现出与浮游细菌不同的表型特征，包括对抗生素和宿主免疫反应的抵抗力增加。因此，了解生物膜的作用对于开发新的眼科抗菌药物至关重要。本文简要概述了生物膜特有的耐药机制，但这是一个高度复杂且快速发展的领域，需要进一步研究。该领域的进展取决于开发能够承认眼部环境复杂性的合适生物膜模型。生物膜形成的非生物模型（在非生物表面上研究生物膜）目前在文献中占主导地位，但共培养感染模型开始出现。 和 角膜感染模型现已报道，它们使用各种不同的实验技术和动物模型。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论现有的角膜感染模型及其在生物膜和角膜表面病原体-宿主相互作用研究中的应用。
