Targeted microbubbles: A new strategy for biofilm imaging and destruction

Staphylococci are the most common cause of infection in indwelling medical devices. Their ability to form ‘biofilms’ makes treatment difficult and can lead to reoccurring infection. This work presents a potential novel method for imaging biofilm in flow systems utilizing Microbubbles (MBs) as ultrasound contrast agents. The surface of these MBs were functionalized with an Affimer protein engineered to bind to Clumping Factor A, a virulence factor present on the surface of S. aureus cells. These functionalized MBs were found to bind to the S. aureus biofilm 10 times better than their controls, demonstrating the ability of these proteins to localize large macromolecular structures to the biofilm surface under flow conditions. The results show the potential of targeted microbubbles to be used as a novel method of biofilm imaging and destruction for biofilm related infections in the body.