Laboratory of Research in Biofilms Rosário Oliveira (LIBRO), Centre of Biological Engineering (CEB), University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
LABBELS -Associate Laboratory , Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 May 4;12:824860. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.824860. eCollection 2022.
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is associated with serious gynaecologic and obstetric complications. The hallmark of BV is the presence of a polymicrobial biofilm on the vaginal epithelium, but BV aetiology is still a matter of debate. We have previously developed an biofilm model that included three BV-associated species, but, up to now, no studies are available whereby more bacterial species are grown together to better mimic the situation. Herein, we characterized the first polymicrobial BV biofilm consisting of six cultivable BV-associated species by using both and vaginal tissue models. Both models revealed that the six species were able to incorporate the polymicrobial biofilm, at different bacterial concentrations. As it has been thought that this polymicrobial biofilm may increase the survival of BV-associated species when exposed to antibiotics, we also assessed if the essential oil (EO), which has recently been shown to be highly bactericidal against several species, could maintain its anti-biofilm activity against this polymicrobial biofilm. Under our experimental conditions, EO exhibited a high antibacterial effect against polymicrobial biofilms, in both tested models, with a significant reduction in the biofilm biomass and the number of culturable cells. Overall, this study shows that six BV-associated species can grow together and form a biofilm both and when using an model. Moreover, the data obtained herein should be considered in further applications of EO as an antimicrobial agent fighting BV.
细菌性阴道病（BV）与严重的妇科和产科并发症有关。BV 的标志是阴道上皮存在多微生物生物膜，但 BV 的病因仍存在争议。我们之前开发了一种生物膜模型，其中包括三种与 BV 相关的物种，但到目前为止，还没有研究表明更多的细菌物种一起生长，以更好地模拟这种情况。在此，我们使用 和 阴道组织模型来表征由六种可培养的 BV 相关物种组成的第一个多微生物 BV 生物膜。这两种模型都表明，六种细菌能够以不同的细菌浓度整合多微生物生物膜。由于人们认为这种多微生物生物膜可能会增加 BV 相关物种在暴露于抗生素时的生存能力，我们还评估了最近被证明对几种 物种具有高度杀菌作用的 精油（EO）是否可以保持其对这种多微生物生物膜的抗生物膜活性。在我们的实验条件下，EO 对两种测试模型中的多微生物生物膜表现出很高的抗菌作用，生物膜生物量和可培养细胞数量均显著减少。总的来说，这项研究表明，六种 BV 相关物种可以一起生长并在 和 模型中形成生物膜。此外，本文获得的数据应在进一步将 EO 作为一种抗菌剂来对抗 BV 的应用中加以考虑。
