Laleh Khodaparast
University of Leuven, Belgium
Title: Characterisation of the biofilm phenotype of methicillin- susceptible and resistant Staphylococcus aureus in UZ hospital Leuven
Biography
Biography: Laleh Khodaparast
Abstract
The ability of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to form biofilms makes them both more virulent and more difficult to treat. There are several virulence factors that help them to express this behaviour.
Here, the biofilm phenotype of a collection of clinical isolates of S. aureus that were collected from the patients in UZ-hospital-Leuven in Belgium was investigated. The biofilm-forming behaviour and phenotypic results were compared between antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive MRSA and MSSA strains, which indicated a common protein-dependent biofilm in both strains, especially the MRSA strains. This suggests that cell wall-anchored proteins are important factors and mostly cause cell adherence.