Targeting Biofilm Associated Staphylococcus aureus Using Resazurin Based Drug-susceptibility Assay

Summary

Most bacterial infections produce a biofilm. By virtue of their environment, biofilm associated bacteria are often phenotypically drug resistant. Novel antibacterial molecules that kill bacteria in biofilms are thus a high priority. We establish an assay to quickly screen for antimicrobial compounds that are effective at eradicating biofilms.

Abstract

Most pathogenic bacteria are able to form biofilms during infection, but due to the difficulty of manipulating and assessing biofilms, the vast majority of laboratory work is conducted with planktonic cells. Here, we describe a peg plate biofilm assay as performed with Staphylococcus aureus. Bacterial biofilms are grown on pegs attached to a 96-well microtiter plate lid, washed through gentle submersion in buffer, and placed in a drug challenge plate. After subsequent incubation they are again washed and moved to a final recovery plate, in which the fluorescent dye resazurin serves as a viability indicator. This assay offers greatly increased ease-of-use, reliability, and reproducibility, as well as a wealth of data when conducted as a kinetic read. Moreover, this assay can be adapted to a medium-throughput drug screening approach by which an endpoint fluorescent readout is taken instead, offering a path for drug discovery efforts.

Introduction

Pathogenic microbes can form biofilms in vivo leading to non-acute chronic infections ¹. Biofilm-associated infection is a serious risk factor of medical procedures that involve implantation of foreign objects (e.g., artificial bone replacements, breast implants) or the installation of tracheal tubes or urinary catheters ². In these contexts, anti-infective therapy is almost always necessary as biofilm-based infections are rarely cleared on their own, even in immunocompetent individuals. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequently observed pathogens implicated in biofilm-related complications occurring during th....

Protocol

1. Biofilm Initiation

1. Grow a culture of biofilm producing organism in a nutrient rich medium. Inoculate Staphylococcus aureus strain Newman in 10 ml of Mueller-Hinton medium from a glycerol stock. Perform all work involving handling of S. aureus with gloves and within a biosafety cabinet.
2. Incubate for 16 hr at 37 °C on a rotary shaker (100-200 rpm).
3. Determine OD₆₀₀ of the culture using a spectrophotometer and a standard cuvette (path length: 1cm).
4. Calculate the volume (V) of culture needed to prepare 20 ml of inoculum with OD_{600(inoculum)} of 0.1 in chelexed Roswell Park Memorial Ins....

Results

The resazurin assay is sensitive enough to reliably detect very few viable cells capable of replicating in drug free medium after challenge. In this methodology, we define the minimal biofilm eradicating concentration as the lowest concentration at which no resazurin conversion is seen within 24 hr. The resazurin assay relies on oxidative molecules found in metabolically active cells which convert the dye color from blue to pink. Dye conversion is thus an indicator of cell growth, and can.......

Discussion

Here, we have described a modified biofilm assay for determining activity of tested inhibitors on S. aureus biofilms focusing on the metabolic state of biofilm associated cells. While the described biofilm initiation and challenge procedures mostly mimicked manufacturer recommendations, the use of resazurin dye to detect and quantify biofilm-associated cells that survive a 24 hr inhibitor challenge dramatically simplifies the recommended procedure of cell recovery (via water bath sonification) and subsequent enu.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Mueller-Hinton Medium	Oxoid	CM0405	Follow recommendations of manufacturer
RPMI-medium	Corning	17-105-CV
CRPMI	Ref 9		RPMI-1640 medium chelexed for 1 hr with Chelex 100 resin and then supplemented with 10% unchelexed RPMI-1640
Chelex 100 Resin	Bio Rad	142-2822
MBEC-plates	Innovotech	19111
Resazurin Sodium Salt	Sigma	R7017	800 µg/ml in DI water     Filter sterile
Micro Plate Shaking Platform	Heidolph Titramax 1000
Cytation 3 Plate Reader	Biotek
Gen5 software	Biotek		Recording and analysis of resazurin conversion
Neocuproine	Sigma	N1501	prepare 10 mM stock in 100% Ethanol, store at -80 ºC
Copper sulfate	Acros Organics	7758-99-8	prepare a 100 mM stock solution in water, store at 4 ºC
Cu-Neocuproine	Self-Made		Generated by mixing equal molarities of neocuproine and copper sulfate. Mix was diluted in CRPMI medium to desired concentration.
Gentamicin	Sigma	G3632-1G