Company researching treatment for Biofilms in Diseases

[tcmgpt13]

I won't say much here as I believe this company's website explains far better than I what they are doing. I heard about them in the paper today, and it sounds hopeful for folks who have diseases involving biofilms, as this may be able to break up the biofilm colonies and make antibiotics more effective, all things which I believe may be applicable to morgellons treatment as well, since biofilms seem to be involved in this illness (the actinomycoces bacteria for one may be involved in morgellons and then there is the chlamydia pneumonia, a suspect too). I expect that bacterias use the biofilm not only to hide and protect themselves from effective treatment in the body, but also to spread in the body. This is something which is highly visible to those with morgellon's lesions where the biofilm may actually be seen on the surface of the skin and from which sometimes additional lesions seem to spread to surrounding skin. Lesions frequently appear to follow the biofilm thus spreading the disease to new skin areas. This biofilm on the skin impedes direct topical treatment with various medication and herbs, as the glue like substance must first be removed and this is often very difficult. Not to mention this process is most likely also going on inside the body itself.

http://www.quonova.com/

[Jo]

Good work tcm -

Good news on the horizon?? hope so.. especially for healing legions, through their new treatment for wound-related bacterial infections...

Must keep an eye on their press releases etc.

Jo xx

[sammy]

Just found this article that tcm posted awhile back I think what I have is a pneumonia type spitting up all this bofilm I wonder if the research ever proved anything sammy

[posey]

tcm, is the article on this page or do you have to do a search from there. I get some weird page with nothing about what you are speaking of and what you are talking about is extremely important. I'd like to read it.

Question for all: I am one of the sufferers who never developed lesions but have tons of biofilm. Anyone read anything to what the difference is between lesions and no lesions?

[sammy]

I have both bio film and lesions. with black specs and white stuff and everything else. sammy

[Cayly]

tcm,

Like Posey, I only bring up a page with no reference to the new treatment for biofilms in diseases. I would be grateful to you to know this info. Thanks.

Cayly.

[tcmgpt13]

Sorry, I have looked up this company online but can find no evidence they still exist as a company, at least as a separate company. At one time they were on the list of about six companies which were a part of XLTechnologies, but they are no longer on that list as a company either. There are however references online to one of its former company officers now working for a German company. Mostly this company is conducting encouraging research into a new way to treat Alzheimer's. This company is even testing a new treatment for that (described as a completely new model to treat alzheimer's). Anyway, sorry to disappoint this way about this particular company (QuoNova). Either it was bought out by a bigger company or what they were doing did not pan out exactly the way they had planned it and the money dried up for further research. I could find no direct information about what happened. Looks as if there is still research going on in this area though (biofilms, quoram sensing inhibitors) and there is some promise for treating some infections this way if pubmed abstracts about this research are anything to go by. I think a lot of the more interesting medical research work is coming out of Europe and other countries too these days, not so much the US:

Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2011 Jun;55(6):2655-61. Epub 2011 Mar 21.

Quorum sensing inhibitors increase the susceptibility of bacterial biofilms to antibiotics in vitro and in vivo.

Brackman G, Cos P, Maes L, Nelis HJ, Coenye T. Source

Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Ghent University, Harelbekestraat 72, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Abstract

Although the exact role of quorum sensing (QS) in various stages of biofilm formation, maturation, and dispersal and in biofilm resistance is not entirely clear, the use of QS inhibitors (QSI) has been proposed as a potential antibiofilm strategy. We have investigated whether QSI enhance the susceptibility of bacterial biofilms to treatment with conventional antimicrobial agents. The QSI used in our study target the acyl-homoserine lactone-based QS system present in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia complex organisms (baicalin hydrate, cinnamaldehyde) or the peptide-based system present in Staphylococcus aureus (hamamelitannin). The effect of tobramycin (P. aeruginosa, B. cepacia complex) and clindamycin or vancomycin (S. aureus), alone or in combination with QSI, was evaluated in various in vitro and in vivo biofilm model systems, including two invertebrate models and one mouse pulmonary infection model. In vitro the combined use of an antibiotic and a QSI generally resulted in increased killing compared to killing by an antibiotic alone, although reductions were strain and model dependent. A significantly higher fraction of infected Galleria mellonella larvae and Caenorhabditis elegans survived infection following combined treatment, compared to treatment with an antibiotic alone. Finally, the combined use of tobramycin and baicalin hydrate reduced the microbial load in the lungs of BALB/c mice infected with Burkholderia cenocepacia more than tobramycin treatment alone. Our data suggest that QSI may increase the success of antibiotic treatment by increasing the susceptibility of bacterial biofilms and/or by increasing host survival following infection.

PMID: 21422204 [PubMed - in process] PMCID: PMC3101409 [Available on 2011/12/1]

Anaerobe. 2011 Apr 8. [Epub ahead of print]

Quorum sensing in biofilms - How to destroy the bacterial citadels or their cohesion/power?

Lazar V. Source

University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology, Aleea Portocalelor no. 1-3, 060101 Bucharest, Sector 6, Romania.

Abstract

Biofilms or microbial communities formed by adherent and cohesive cells on cellular or inert substrata (like medical devices), are involved in ∼60% of all infections and characterized by moderate intensity symptoms, chronic evolution and resistance to antibiotics. Biofilms' pathogenicity, even of those formed by opportunistic microorganisms, is amplified by two major biofilm characteristics: 1) the increased resistance to antimicrobials; 2) the protection of cells against the host's defence mechanisms. The studies at the molecular level shown that the biofilms formation is controlled by cell-to-cell signalling mechanisms and the gene regulation during biofilm growth is due to the accumulation of signal molecules. In this regard, quorum sensing mechanism (QS) is defined as a cell-density dependent bacterial intercellular communication, involved in gene expression (e.g. virulence genes for exoenzymes, exopolysaccharides) and the consequent changed behaviour of biofilm's cells, including the resistance to stress conditions; this resistance is different of well known antibioresistance, being named phenotypical resistance or tolerance. Considering the differences in physiology and susceptibility to antibiotics of biofilm embedded bacteria, as well as their increased power against the host defence responses, there are necessary new strategies for prevention and therapy of biofilm associated infections. The dental plaque is a typical example of biofilm, involved in the ethiology of cariogenesis and periodontal diseases associated with local chronic inflammation and cytokines production. The genetical and phenotypical versatility of the biofilm's cells represent a challenge for discovering new methods of treatment and prevention of biofilm associated infections. A novel class of antibiofilm and antipathogenic therapeutics which are interfering with a new target - the QS pathway, not based on growth inhibition and called QS inhibitors, natural, with different origins or artificial, are now developing as an alternative to antibiotherapy.

Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

If interested this next abstract is also published in its entirety under the section pubmed articles:

A mathematical model of quorum sensing regulated EPS production in biofilm communities

Theor Biol Med Model. 2011; 8: 8. Published online 2011 April 10. doi: 10.1186/1742-4682-8-8

PMCID: PMC3090360 Copyright ©2011 Frederick et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. A mathematical model of quorum sensing regulated EPS production in biofilm communities Mallory R Frederick,corresponding author1 Christina Kuttler,2 Burkhard A Hense,3 and Hermann J Eberlcorresponding author1 1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph ON Canada N1G 2W1 2Center of Mathematical Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748 Garching, Germany 3Institute of Biomathematics and Biometry, HelmholtzCenter Munich, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany corresponding authorCorresponding author. Mallory R Frederick: Christina Kuttler: Burkhard A Hense: Hermann J Eberl: Received August 2, 2010; Accepted April 10, 2011. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License//creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by/2.0 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic CC BY which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract Background Biofilms are microbial communities encased in a layer of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The EPS matrix provides several functional purposes for the biofilm, such as protecting bacteria from environmental stresses, and providing mechanical stability. Quorum sensing is a cell-cell communication mechanism used by several bacterial taxa to coordinate gene expression and behaviour in groups, based on population densities.

Model

We mathematically model quorum sensing and EPS production in a growing biofilm under various environmental conditions, to study how a developing biofilm impacts quorum sensing, and conversely, how a biofilm is affected by quorum sensing-regulated EPS production. We investigate circumstances when using quorum-sensing regulated EPS production is a beneficial strategy for biofilm cells.

Results

We find that biofilms that use quorum sensing to induce increased EPS production do not obtain the high cell populations of low-EPS producers, but can rapidly increase their volume to parallel high-EPS producers. Quorum sensing-induced EPS production allows a biofilm to switch behaviours, from a colonization mode (with an optimized growth rate), to a protection mode.

Conclusions A biofilm will benefit from using quorum sensing-induced EPS production if bacteria cells have the objective of acquiring a thick, protective layer of EPS, or if they wish to clog their environment with biomass as a means of securing nutrient supply and outcompeting other colonies in the channel, of their own or a different species.

[MeaganM]

I read that something called Blockbuster breaks up the biofilm. Has anyone else heard of this or tried it?

[posey]

Thank you TCM, I appreciate it. I always like stuff like this to give to my "good" Dr. He is always trying to help me and another patient with M. Also is a firm believer of it.

Too bad the rest of the Med Community doesn't ubderstand.

Megan, I have never heard of this product.

[Reneecoffey]

I also have both, biofilm and lessions and everything else, I HAVE HEARD THE BOLOUKE ALSO DISSOLVES THIS BIOFILM AND RELEASES THEM., I know someone who has been taking it for about a month now, Her dr put her on it. You take one in the morning and one at night. I ordered it last month but was waiting to take it , due to alot activity, due to starting, Neem oil, Coconut oil, and the salt baths, major activity in salt baths.
Anyway, You don't need a prescription, The best one is Cananda RNA biochemical inc. BOLUOKE. She told me to expect alot of activity due to the releasing of the biofilm. I am looking forward to taking it. Not cheap. It's $90.00 or more. I bought mine off of Ebay For 93.00 WITH TAX, AND FREE SHIPPING. So check out ebay first, than other sites. There 60 capsules, for one month.
I will let you know how it goes....