Nutrient dispersion enhances conventional antibiotic activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms

Abstract Bacterial biofilms cause significant infections in the medical field. Antibiotics commonly used to treat these infections often do not achieve complete bacterial eradication. New approaches to eliminate biofilms have focused on dispersion compounds to entice the bacteria to actively escape or disperse from the biofilm, where the bacteria may become more susceptible to antibiotics. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that combining antibiotics with nutrient dispersion compounds can synergistically decrease the viability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. The effects of various co-treatments were studied on mature biofilms through qualitative and quantitative confocal microscopy. Combined treatment of P. aeruginosa biofilms with antibiotic and dispersion compounds resulted in a significant reduction in the live bacterial population compared with the untreated control in all cases, with four combinations displaying synergistic action (citrate with amikacin disulphate, colistin methanesulphonate or erythromycin, and succinic acid with colistin methanesulphonate).