Photodynamic therapy for the eradication of biofilms formed by catheter associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has emerged as a major opportunistic pathogen causing catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CA-UTIs) associated with high mortality and morbidity. In this study 18 P. aeruginosa isolates from urine of catheterized patients were evaluated for in vitro biofilm formation.All the tested strains showed the ability to form biofilm more thicker than those formed by a cohort of 29 blood culture strains belonging to the same species. Photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) is a novel antimicrobial treatment that exploits a photosensitizer (PS) and visible light to induce lethal oxidative damages in bacterial cells and could be used as local antimicrobial approach in CA-UTIs. Here we tested the susceptibility of planktonic and sessile cultures of P. aeruginosa strains, the model strain PAO1 and CA-UTI isolates, to photodynamic inactivation with a di cationic porphyrinic photosensitizer, the 5, 15-di (N-benzyl-4-pyridynium)-porphyrin di chloride.Although Pseudomonas aeruginosa is regarded as a difficult target for antimicrobial chemotherapy, satisfactory bactericidal activities on both planktonic and biofilm cultures were observed.