Biofilm Testing

They can be screened for:

• Sessile minimum inhibitory concen­tra­tion assays (SMIC), inhi­bi­tion or dispersal of the biofilm following treatment.
• Vali­dated estab­lished robust repro­ducible pre-clin­ical multi-species interk­ingdom biofilm models (ranging from 2- 11 species) to support real­istic antibiofilm effi­cacy prior to clin­ical assessment.
• Kill time for screening the effi­cacy of anti-micro­bial/anti-infec­tive compounds.
• Quan­ti­ta­tive compo­si­tional analysis of both live and total numbers of each species within mixed species biofilm over time during treat­ment ‑and a range of addi­tional assays as requested.
• Estab­lished and Vali­dated Biofilm Inhi­bi­tion or Disrup­tion Assay for Wound Dressings.
• A range of supporting imaging options including imaging of biofilms using scan­ning elec­tron microscopy (SEM).

BluTest’s high quality biofilm testing model allows clients to test the antimi­cro­bial effi­cacy of their prod­ucts against micro­bial biofilms using a vali­dated high-throughput testing plat­form. The assays are highly flex­ible and can be adapted to support the growth of different biofilm-forming microor­gan­isms on 24, 96 and 384 well plates. Cell viability after treat­ment with the desired anti-micro­bial is then measured using a reli­able meta­bolic assay.

Why test against biofilm

Up to 90% of bacteria exist as biofilms in nature and these can include combi­na­tions of bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Biofilms provide protec­tion through mutu­al­istic rela­tion­ships between species and a surrounding extra­cel­lular matrix which can make them diffi­cult to inhibit or disperse in addi­tion to being less suscep­tible to anti-micro­bial agents.

The current stan­dard testing methods of bacte­ri­cidal and bacte­rio­static actives uses plank­tonic bacteria. However, biofilms have been repeat­edly shown to be signif­i­cantly more resis­tant to anti-micro­bial compounds compared to their plank­tonic coun­ter­parts. As a result, such testing may misjudge the concen­tra­tions of active required to combat a biofilm.

Bespoke biofilm models

In addi­tion to our stan­dard testing Blutest has exper­tise in devel­oping multi-species/ interk­ingdom biofilm models to suit a variety of real-world applications.

• Co-culture models containing biofilms and host cells for testing anti-inflam­ma­tory and anti-micro­bial actives. This model can be used to assess both the biofilm and cell response to treatment.
• Co-culture models to measure anti-inflam­ma­tory or protec­tive effects of treat­ments in addi­tion to any bacte­ri­cidal or bacte­rio­static prop­er­ties. This model can be used to measure cell viability and a range of host immune responses via gene expres­sion and protein release in addi­tion to analysis on the biofilm itself.