Treatment of infectious biofilms: Challenges and strategies.

, a Gram-negative bacterium, is one of the major pathogens implicated in human opportunistic infection and a common cause of clinically persistent infections such as cystic fibrosis, urinary tract infections, and burn infections. The main reason for the persistence of infections is due to the ability of to secrete extracellular polymeric substances such as exopolysaccharides, matrix proteins, and extracellular DNA during invasion. These substances adhere to and wrap around bacterial cells to form a biofilm. Biofilm formation leads to multiple antibiotic resistance in , posing a significant challenge to conventional single antibiotic therapeutic approaches. It has therefore become particularly important to develop anti-biofilm drugs. In recent years, a number of new alternative drugs have been developed to treat infectious biofilms, including antimicrobial peptides, quorum-sensing inhibitors, bacteriophage therapy, and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy. This article briefly introduces the process and regulation of biofilm formation and reviews several developed anti-biofilm treatment technologies to provide new directions for the treatment of biofilm infection.