Correlative time-resolved fluorescence microscopy to assess antibiotic diffusion-reaction in biofilms

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2012 Jun;56(6):3349-58. doi: 10.1128/AAC.00216-12. Epub 2012 Mar 26.

Abstract

The failure of antibiotics to inactivate in vivo pathogens organized in biofilms has been shown to trigger chronic infections. In addition to mechanisms involving specific genetic or physiological cell properties, antibiotic sorption and/or reaction with biofilm components may lessen the antibiotic bioavailability and consequently decrease their efficiency. To assess locally and accurately the antibiotic diffusion-reaction, we used for the first time a set of advanced fluorescence microscopic tools (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and fluorescence lifetime imaging) that offer a spatiotemporal resolution not available with the commonly used time-lapse confocal imaging method. This set of techniques was used to characterize the dynamics of fluorescently labeled vancomycin in biofilms formed by two Staphylococcus aureus human isolates. We demonstrate that, at therapeutic concentrations of vancomycin, the biofilm matrix was not an obstacle to the diffusion-reaction of the antibiotic that can reach all cells through the biostructure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacokinetics*
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
  • Biofilms / drug effects*
  • Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Staphylococcus aureus / drug effects
  • Staphylococcus aureus / metabolism
  • Vancomycin / pharmacokinetics*
  • Vancomycin / pharmacology

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Vancomycin