Natural Anti-biofilm Agents: Strategies to Control Biofilm-Forming Pathogens

• Main Authors: Rojita Mishra, Amrita Kumari Panda, Surajit De Mandal, Muhammad Shakeel, Satpal Singh Bisht, Junaid Khan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-01
• Series: Frontiers in Microbiology
• Subjects: microbial biofilm; therapeutic strategies; phytocompounds; multidrug resistance; antimicrobial peptides; biosurfactant
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.566325/full

Pathogenic microorganisms and their chronic pathogenicity are significant concerns in biomedical research. Biofilm-linked persistent infections are not easy to treat due to resident multidrug-resistant microbes. Low efficiency of various treatments and in vivo toxicity of available antibiotics drive the researchers toward the discovery of many effective natural anti-biofilm agents. Natural extracts and natural product-based anti-biofilm agents are more efficient than the chemically synthesized counterparts with lesser side effects. The present review primarily focuses on various natural anti-biofilm agents, i.e., phytochemicals, biosurfactants, antimicrobial peptides, and microbial enzymes along with their sources, mechanism of action via interfering in the quorum-sensing pathways, disruption of extracellular polymeric substance, adhesion mechanism, and their inhibitory concentrations existing in literature so far. This study provides a better understanding that a particular natural anti-biofilm molecule exhibits a different mode of actions and biofilm inhibitory activity against more than one pathogenic species. This information can be exploited further to improve the therapeutic strategy by a combination of more than one natural anti-biofilm compounds from diverse sources.