Lung Biofilms & Cystic Fibrosis
and lung inflammation research
Bacterial and fungal biofilms are a major factor in many pulmonary diseases and infections. Lung inflammation can range from pneumonia biofilm development to chronic infection from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis patients. These pathogens have the capabilities to invade the entire respiratory system.
With the BioFlux system, analysis of these biofilms is made easy. Customers have used the BioFlux for a wide array of lung biofilm assays, including the competition between bacterial strains and the discovery of novel anti-biofilm drugs.
A BioFlux system was used to analyze how bacterial strains compete in biofilms isolated from cystic fibrosis patients. Strains were labeled with mCherry and GFP. They found that toxic proteins called pyocins, specifically R-pyocins, play a large role in the competition between strains of P. aeruginosa (Oluyombo et al., 2019).
P. aeruginosa (red) and S. aeureus (blue) were grown in BioFlux microfluidic plates, then were attacked by B. bacteriovorus. As shown in the graph, B. bacteriovorus interrupted biofilm growth for both strains over the course of 24 hours (Iebba et al., 2014).
Key BioFlux Advantages For Lung Biofilm Studies
-
Controlled, continuous flow provides a perfect environment for anti-biofilm drug discovery for treatment of pulmonary diseases such as cystic fibrosis
-
Multiple channels allows for comparison and/or competition between biofilms isolated from patients
-
A precise validation tool for in vivo assays with the ability to visualize events occurring in the lungs
-
Several shear flow rates can be utilized to replicate pressure in the respiratory system for different infections