Probiotic lactobacillus strains and their antimicrobial peptides to counteract biofilm-associated infections: A promising biological approach

Biofilms keep the intimate relationship between human body and resident microbes. According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), the development of extracellular microbial communities, called biofilms contribute approximately 75% of pathogenic infections to human. The formation of biofilm confers several advantages during pathogen colonization and tolerates extreme conditions like exogenous stress caused by anti-infective agents. The interpretation and exploitation of anti-biofilm properties would help in future challenges, particularly in the control of human infections. The proven scientific evidence with regard to cellular association and exopolysaccharide production by probiotic bacteria could play an important role as anti-biofilm tools. These extracellular components may directly interact with the biofilms as they are actively transported to the bacterial environments via cytoplasmic membrane. The interactive ability of these extracellular metabolites to treat pathogenic biofilms is gaining significant research interest and their possibility to use as anti-biofilm agents. In this review, the extracellular probiotic bacterial markers and molecular approaches to control pathogenic biofilms have been reviewed and future perspectives and research interests are discussed as well