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Protein discovered that disrupts infectious biofilms

Mel9

Senior Member
Messages
995
Location
NSW Australia
I came across this and thought it may be of interest here. From my limited knowledge chronic lyme bugs form biofilms causing resistance to antibiotics. It seems a protein has been discovered that disrupts biofilms. Maybe one day this can be applied to chronic lyme infections?

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-protein-disrupts-infectious-biofilms.html


Yes, This is a really interesting paper. Biofilms are indeed very important in Borrelia infections (e. G. 'Lyme disease') but the paper is talking about another deadly bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, that causes Cystic fibrosis. The authors have found a way of preventing it forming biofilms by targetting a blue dye, pyocyanin.

Borrelia do not produce pyocyanin but they do form biofilms. The biofilms help the Borrelia escape the effects of antibiotics (imagine thick walls of bacteria. Those in the middle are being protected by those and below them).

Doctors already have good ways of breaking down these Borrelia (spirochaete) biofilms. E .g Twice per week I take one capsule of kirkman 'biofilm defense' consisting of many different types of enzymes (pectinases, proteases, cellulases etc). These result in strong Herx reactions indicating they are having an effect on the bacteria.

Little by little the antibiotics I take daily are then able to decrease the bacterial population because the biofilms are diminishing. Herx reactions are no fun though, so one needs to ensure we have good doctors to take care of us before embarking on biofilm treatment.