Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Sep 07, 2025 2 months, 2 days, 20 hours, 19 minutes ago
Medical News: Biofilms and Their Silent Danger
Biofilms are sticky communities of bacteria and fungi that cling to surfaces like wounds, hospital tools, or even tissues inside the human body. They are notoriously hard to remove and are resistant to antibiotics, often leading to chronic infections. While scientists have studied bacteria and fungi in biofilms for decades, very little attention has been given to the role of viruses. Now, researchers from 5D Health Protection Group Limited in Liverpool, UK have released an important study showing how viruses influence biofilm growth and make infections much more difficult to treat.
Viruses Drive Dangerous Growth of Hidden Biofilms
This
Medical News report reveals that viruses do far more than simply infect human cells. They can actually manipulate biofilms, making them stronger, more resistant, and harder to defeat. This discovery matters greatly because biofilms are linked to slow-healing wounds, long-term lung infections, and hospital-acquired diseases that affect millions of people worldwide.
How Viruses Help Bacteria Stick and Spread
The study showed that viruses can help bacteria attach more easily to human tissues. For example, the influenza virus produces a protein called neuraminidase that exposes new “sticky sites” on human cells. Bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae then use these spots to attach, often causing severe pneumonia during flu outbreaks. Herpes simplex virus was also found to interfere with the natural microbiome of the mouth and nose, creating opportunities for bacteria and fungi to form biofilms. These findings highlight how viral infections often open the door for dangerous bacterial coinfections.
Feeding the Growth of Biofilms
Viruses also encourage biofilms to grow once they are formed. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for instance, disrupts how airway cells control iron, an essential nutrient. This disturbance releases iron into surrounding tissues, feeding bacterial biofilms like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These infections are particularly life-threatening for people with cystic fibrosis, where biofilms in the lungs worsen breathing and increase the risk of death.
Other viruses change cell metabolism in ways that stimulate bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus to expand biofilm colonies. Even when antibiotics are used, the viruses create protective conditions that help the biofilms survive and flourish.
Infections Become More Severe
The study also revealed that coinfections with viruses and biofilms are much more severe than those caused by either alone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients with coronavirus also developed Pseudomonas coinfections. This combination worsened lung damage, increased death rates, and prolonged hospital stays. Viruses weaken tissue and immune defenses, giving bacteria the perfect chance to invade. This combined attack makes infections extremely difficult to control with current treatments.
How Viruses Push Biofilms to Spread
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Viruses not only strengthen biofilms but also push them to spread. The common cold virus, rhinovirus, triggers signals that force bacteria to leave biofilms and travel deeper into the body, often reaching the lungs. This explains why so many people develop bacterial pneumonia after viral illnesses. Once free, these bacteria become even more aggressive and dangerous, making recovery much harder.
What This Means for Future Treatments
Because viruses and biofilms work together, treating these infections with only antibiotics will not be enough. The researchers suggest that future treatments should combine antivirals with antibiofilm drugs. Promising approaches include antimicrobial peptides that can fight both viruses and bacteria, and therapies that block access to nutrients like iron. Such strategies could finally offer new hope for patients with chronic wounds, lung infections, and other hard-to-treat conditions.
Conclusion
This study shines a light on the hidden role of viruses in biofilms and shows how they create more dangerous and drug-resistant infections. Viruses not only promote bacterial growth and spread but also make diseases more severe and harder to treat. Understanding this teamwork between viruses and bacteria is vital for doctors and scientists as they develop new medicines. The findings make clear that ignoring the viral role in biofilms could leave us unprepared for future outbreaks. Only by creating treatments that target both viruses and biofilms at once can medicine hope to overcome these stubborn infections. This discovery could transform the way chronic and hospital-acquired infections are treated and save countless lives in the future.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Access Microbiology
https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.0.001111.v1
For the latest on Viruses and Biofilms, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/new-probiotic-eradicates-crohn-s-disease-biofilms
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/bacterial-disinfectants-new-yeast-biosurfactant-to-combat-bacterial-biofilms-in-food-processing-industries,-restaurants,-kitchens-and-also-healthcare-
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/russian-scientists-develop-multiple-enzybiotics-protocol-for-hard-to-treat-bacterial-infections
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