Editorial: Rising stars in biofilms 2022

Chelsie E. Armbruster, Ângela França, Almagul R. Kushugulova, Renan Marrichi Mauch, Alberto J. Martín‐Rodríguez

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 2023

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1169998
Data confidence 85 high
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

Rising stars in biofilms: 2022The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including globally-disseminated multidrug-resistant strains, has become one of the most alarming threats for human health.Fundamentally originated by an inadequate use of antibiotics in clinical and nonclinical settings, infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria are currently responsible for around two million deaths each year and are estimated to be the cause of death of as many as 10 million people yearly by 2050(O'Neill, 2016)).In parallel, mycoses, which are often concomitant with bacterial infections, have been historically neglected despite being the fifth largest cause of death and imposing a huge burden on healthcare systems worldwide (Rodrigues and Nosanchuk, 2020).Biofilm formation is a common characteristic of numerous bacterial and fungal species of clinical relevance.In bacteria, biofilm formation involves the production of an extracellular matrix mainly composed of exopolysaccharides, proteins, and nucleic acids, whose architecture and dynamics are impressive in many ways.Biofilms protect pathogens from the action of drugs and the immune system and facilitate their survival in hostile environments such as low oxygen, nutrient deprivation, and the host inflammatory response.Within biofilms, the so-called "persisters", that is, cellular subpopulations with reduced metabolic activity, contribute to bacterial resilience and infection relapse while remaining largely immune to the action of most antibiotics (Flemming et al., 2016).Much progress has been achieved in bacterial biofilms research over the last years, using a plethora of models mimicking infection such as cystic fibrosis, wound, dental, osteomyelitis, endocarditis and medical-device related infections (Banerjee et al., 2020).However, substantial efforts are still needed to develop therapeutic strategies to tackle the challenges posed by biofilms, including an improved understanding of their complex physiology and dynamics.The new generation of scientists has a lot to contribute in this regard.In the present Research Topic, we gather four studies led by early-career scientists that bring new insights and advances to biofilm research.