New findings show that a bacterial biofilm may explain why some kids have persistent wet coughs that do not respond to antibiotics.
Bacterial slime, also known as biofilm, has been identified as the culprit behind recurrent and hard to treat chest infections affecting some children, a new study shows.
The study, published last week in The Lancet Microbe, was led by a team of researchers from the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth and Menzies School of Health Research, in Northern Territory.
Children suffering from a prolonged wet cough after having an acute cough can go on to develop a condition called protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB). This condition can lead to the development of a sever lung disease called bronchiectasis.
Currently, there is no clear data on the prevalence of bronchiectasis, but, according to Dr Ruth Thornton, senior author and research fellow with the Telethon Kids Institute and UWA, the condition disproportionally affects certain groups.
“The data is not great for bronchiectasis in Australia however we do know that there is a higher burden in Indigenous Australians and particularly in children,” Dr Thornton told Medical Forum.
In their study, researchers studied samples taken from 69 children with PBB, from Brisbane and 75 children with bronchiectasis, from Darwin. Samples were analysed using advanced microscopy techniques, in collaboration with Microscopy Australia at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, at the University of Western Australia.
The authors found that prevalence of lower airway biofilms was 36% (25 of 69 children) among children with PBB and 41% among children with bronchiectasis (31 of 75). When researchers looked only at children with clear signs of lower airway infection, they found that 48% of these children had lower airway biofilms, compared to only 19% among children without signs of infection.
Dr Thornton says that their findings show, for the first time, that biofilms occur in the lungs of children with chronic lung disease. The identification of the culprit behind these conditions will help with the development of more effective therapies.
“The fact that we have shown this is occurring in children with protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB – or chronic wet cough), which is even more common, hopefully means that we can now focus on trying to assess therapeutics to prevent these children from going onto develop the more serious condition of bronchiectasis, which will hopefully give them a longer and more healthy life,” Dr Thornton said.
According to Dr Thornton when bacteria live in these slimes they can be more than a thousand times more resistant to antibiotics than the bacteria that cause the acute infections. “This means that when you stop antibiotics your child is likely to get yet another infection,” she added.
Future research can now focus on developing new treatments for these children. “At the moment there are some promising vaccines and therapeutics that target bacterial biofilms, however these are yet to be licensed or used for PBB,” Dr Thornton said.