Phage therapy of infectious biofilms: challenges and strategies

Infectious biofilms are difficult to target with conventional antibiotherapy due to their intrinsic tolerance to antibiotics. In vitro, ex vivo and in vivo studies have shown great efficacy of bacteriophages (phages) in combating biofilms. However, the tri-dimensional organisation of the biofilm cells inside a polymeric matrix, along with their sessile associated physiology, imposes some difficulties to phage therapy. Phage--biofilm interactions are highly dependent on the biofilm structure and physiology and therefore greatly influenced by the models used to grow biofilms. In this chapter, the challenges faced by phages when interacting and kill biofilm cells will be discussed as well as the methods used to study phage--biofilm interactions. Approaches to enhance phage efficacy towards infectious biofilms will also be addressed in this chapter.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio