Quantifying the action of antibiotics on biofilms is essential to devise
therapies against chronic infections. Biofilms are bacterial communities
attached to moist surfaces, sheltered from external aggressions by a polymeric
matrix. Coupling a dynamic energy budget based description of cell metabolism
to surrounding concentration fields, we are able to approximate survival curves
measured for different antibiotics. We reproduce numerically stratified
distributions of cell types within the biofilm and introduce ways to
incorporate different resistance mechanisms. Qualitative predictions follow
that are in agreement with experimental observations, such as higher survival
rates of cells close to the substratum when employing antibiotics targeting
active cells or enhanced polymer production when antibiotics are administered.
The current computational model enables validation and hypothesis testing when
developing therapies.Comment: to appear in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical
Simulatio
