Case study

ATOM

Characterization of the mechanism of action of novel anti-biofilm molecule.

Background

In addition to its proprietary high-throughput screening step, Biofilm Pharma screened for potential antimicrobial molecules with added anti-biofilm value. Biofilm Pharma aims to identify compounds that inhibit biofilm-forming activity.

Challenges

BIOASTER first challenge was to confirm and quantify the anti-biofilm activity of the
compounds against the targeted strains :

Staphylococcus aureus & Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The next challenge was first to choose the right technologic approach and then to implement it in order to identify the mode of action of the compounds.

Solution

Using the BiofilmCare technology, an innovative solution allowing an accurate assessment of the compounds’ activity against biofilms, BIOASTER characterized the anti-biofilm activity of the compounds against the strains of interest in vitro.

Then, BIOASTER developed a fully customized experimental microbiology protocol in order to generate data for metabolomics and transcriptomics analyses relevant to the context of the mode of action deciphering regarding the biofilm prevention compounds.

Results

The metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis in kinetics with or without anti-biofilm compound allowed the identification of the early metabolic and molecular events related to the action of the compounds.

Then the data integration, including advanced statistical analyses and pathway enrichments allowed the identification of the pathways directly impacted by the compounds. Then the BIOASTER team was able to formulate hypothesis regarding the mode of action of the compounds.

Outlook

This multi-OMIC approach has been validated and exploitable for the identification of modes of action of anti-biofilm compounds.

Additional information

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