Using Synthetic Polymers To Break Down Biofilms
Inspired by the process barnacles undergo to break down bacteria before suctioning themselves to rocks, BioE Professor and Chair Abraham Joy is using his synthetic polymer to remove biofilms with bacteria that cause antibiotic-resistant infections. He co-authored research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was written by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert. Main photo: Barnacles use chemicals to clear bacteria from rock surfaces. Could a synthetic polymer work the same way to clear bacterial biofilms from human tissue? Northeastern University Photo
Barnacle-inspired polymers could present new way to design antibiofilm materials, researchers say
Talk about a wave of inspiration.
Scientific literature has shown that barnacles that cling to rocks at the seashore use naturally occurring chemicals to clear rock surfaces of bacteria in preparation for laying down their sticky “glue.”
Since bioengineering professor Abraham Joy’s lab had already designed a synthetic polymer that adheres well to wet surfaces, researchers wondered if they could use the material to loosen bacteria from their moorings in other settings, including human tissue and industrial pipes.
“We were thinking, can we use that idea to almost simulate what barnacles are doing and test out materials to see if they have similar actions,” says Joy, who became chair of Northeastern University’s Department of Bioengineering in January.
“When we did it, we were surprised it works very well” against certain bacterial biofilms, he says.
Abraham Joy, Northeastern professor and chair of bioengineering, says a synthetic polymer could point the way to new antibiotic treatments. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
Biofilms are a collective of microorganisms that can grow on different surfaces and could include bacteria and fungi.
A research paper he co-authored in the Journal of the American Chemical Society showed the polymer was able to remove nearly all the biofilm housing a bacteria that can cause antibiotic resistant infections, Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
“This research tells us that we have potentially a new way of thinking about how to design antibiotics,” Joy says.
It’s possible that in the future the polymers can be applied in liquid form to biofilms in wounds that are chronic or slow to heal, he says. There could also be industrial applications for clearing bacterial contamination out of pipes and medical devices.
Clearing out the biofilms that house bacteria
Joy says the research is not actually about killing bacteria, but about disrupting the interactions between biofilms that house them and surfaces on which they are living.
“We’re not looking at killing the bacteria,” he says. “‘We’re just saying, ‘How do you address the removal of the biofilms by themselves?’
“Think of biofilm as a house and bacteria as people inside a house. We’re not doing anything to the people in the house. We’re just working with the exoskeleton or the scaffolding or structure of the housing. We’re just making that housing weaker.”
Many forms of bacteria lay down biofilms when they settle on a surface, Joy says.
He says 60% to 80% of wounds have biofilms present, which presents a treatment challenge since the bacteria in biofilms are dormant and do not respond effectively to the cocktail of oral antibiotics typically given in a hospital. Those antibiotics are designed to work on metabolically active bacteria.
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