RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Use of Commercially Available Alpha-Amylase Compounds to Inhibit and Remove Staphylococcus aureus Biofilms
Bradford Craigen, Aliza Dashiff, Daniel E Kadouri*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 21
Last Page: 31
Publisher ID: TOMICROJ-5-21
DOI: 10.2174/1874285801105010021
Article History:
Received Date: 25/3/2011Revision Received Date: 9/4/2011
Acceptance Date: 12/4/2011
Electronic publication date: 1/6/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus, a versatile human pathogen, is commonly associated with medical device infections. Its capacity to establish and maintain these infections is thought to be related to its ability to form adherent biofilms. In this study, commercially available α-amylase compounds from various biological sources were evaluated for their ability to reduce and prevent biofilm formation of several S. aureus isolates. Our data demonstrates that α-amylase compounds can rapidly detach biofilms of S. aureus, as well as inhibit biofilm formation. Our data also demonstrates that α-amylase compounds have an ability to reduce and disassociate S. aureus cell-aggregates grown in liquid suspension. These findings suggest that commercially available α-amylase compounds could be used in the future to control S. aureus biofilm-related infections.