Novel therapeutics and diagnostics in mono- and polymicrobial biofilm infections: Addressing emerging challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53992/njns.v11i2.328Keywords:
Biofilms, Antimicrobial Resistance, Antimicrobial Therapy, Diagnostic Tools, Clinical Management, Therapeutics, Microbial CommunitiesAbstract
Microbial biofilm infections are a major challenge in modern medicine. They can be monomicrobial, consisting of a single species, or polymicrobial biofilms, in which the bacterial and fungal species coexist. They form highly structured and resilient communities that can coordinate through quorum sensing, modulate metabolism, and produce protective extracellular matrices. These properties allow biofilms to persist on tissues and abiotic surfaces and can cause serious infection involving chronic wounds, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, cystic fibrosis lung infections, diabetic foot ulcers, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, prosthetic joint infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Their capacity to resist antibiotic exposure and evade host immunity can cause prolonged disease, recurrent infections, and is also one of the main contributors to the global healthcare burden. This review aims to explore novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies, focusing on the critical gaps limiting current clinical management and traditional treatment outcomes. For that, through recent literature, the current diagnostic and therapeutic limitations and emerging solutions were analyzed. The findings highlight that the efficacy of traditional antibiotic activity in planktonic and biofilm is completely different. Biofilms exhibit significantly enhanced resistance and tolerance mechanisms. For that, new and more effective alternatives are urgently needed. Advanced strategies include combination therapies, nanotechnology-based antimicrobials, engineered phages, anti-quorum-sensing agents, antimicrobial peptides, and CRISPR-Cas approaches. Parallel progress in diagnostics, including molecular techniques, advanced imaging, biosensors, and biomarker discovery, offers improved detection of biofilm-associated pathogens. These innovative strategies towards the early detection and advanced therapeutics show strong potential to transform the management of biofilm-associated infections.
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