Molecular Detection of Some Biofilm Genes in Acinetobacter baumannii is a Clinically Significant Opportunistic Pathogen in Hospital and Healthcare Environments

Acinetobacter baumannii is one such opportunistic pathogen in hospital and clinical set up. It can develop strong biofilm on biotic and abiotic surfaces and is therefore tough to unfavorable conditions as well as anti-bacterial drugs. The proteins that are encoded by key genes used in biofilm formation, cilia formation (adhesion), and host immune response suppression include bap, Csu and ompA. This renders the treatment of infections caused by this bacterium especially ventilator-associated pneumonia, septicemia and wound infections to be a major clinical challenge since available treatment has limited efficacy. Biofilm system can form a physical and physiological barrier to prevent penetration of antibiotics, as well as to dampen the host immune response resulting in decreased therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, this time of long-term and chronic microbe exposure becomes extremely difficult to get rid of A. baumannii infection. As a result, there has been growing interest in the identification of genetic, molecular and regulatory mechanisms that can interfere with biofilm development or stability. Therefore, a complete perception of the genetic determinants and regulatory circuits involved in biofilm formation, including quorum-sensing systems, two-component control systems and biofilm-associated surface proteins, is an essential requirement to develop novel antibiotics & anti-biofilm strategies against drug-resistant A. baumannii isolates.