Science Letters

Inhibition of clinical multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae biofilm by Siphoviridae bacteriophage Z

Muhsin Jamal 1, 2*, Tahir Hussain 1, Chythanya Rajanna Das 2, Saadia Andleeb 1

1 Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan

2 Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI), University of Florida (UF), Florida, USA

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for a spectrum of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. It is also one of the important nosocomial enteric pathogen that causes biofilm-related infections. Bacterial biofilms are associated with a variety of human infections. Biofilms are extremely resistant to a variety of antimicrobial drugs; therefore alternative strategies such as bacteriophages have been suggested to control bacterial biofilms. Phage interaction with biofilm is still not clearly explored and further studies are required for deep understanding of phage behavior on biofilm. In this study, we have described a previously reported phage Z to control K. pneumoniae biofilm. The K. pneumoniae biofilms formed under static condition with renewal of media for 24 h, 72 h and 120 h showed biofilm biomass reduction of 2.5-log, 2.3-log and 3.3-log, respectively, after phage treatment for 4 hours. Similarly, biofilm formed under dynamic conditions with renewal of media for 24 h, 72 h and 120 h showed biofilm biomass reductions of 2.3-log, 2.4-log and 3.2-log, respectively, after phage treatment for 4 hours. We concluded from this study that bacteriophage Z was highly efficient in removing K. pneumoniae biofilm under both static and dynamic conditions.

Key words: Bacteriophage, biofilm, Klebsiella pneumoniae, nosocomial.

Received May 15, 2015 Revised July 09, 2015 Published online first August 11, 2015

*Corresponding author Muhsin Jamal Email muhsinkhan08@gmail.com Phone +92-346-9398028 Fax +92-51-90856102