Fighting biofilms with ancientbiotics

Traditional route

Staphylococcus biofilm. Wikimedia Commons

Biofilms are thick slimy sheets of bacteria, fungi, or protists that unite to form powerful populations. They are found on humid rocks on sea and river shores, are present above, in and on the water as well. The stinky yellowish plague on the teeth surface, the gunk that clogs our household drains are all forms of biofilms. The most serious effects of biofilms are seen on wounds, medical equipment like catheters, pacemakers, lenses, etc. The micro-organisms within biofilms support and empower each other. Just like it is tougher to fight an army as compared to individual soldiers, biofilms are tough to overpower as compared to individual biofilm-forming microbes. This provides an edge to biofilms making them resistant to antibiotics.

A recent study published in Frontiers of Pharmacology pursued to go from antibiotics to ancientbiotics to fight biofilms. The study tests traditional Ayurvedic medicine by using modern day scientific assays.

In an attempt to discover a stronger army of potent compounds against biofilms, scientists decided to go back to our roots and dig cues from the Ayurveda. Reading through the ancient text of Charaka Samitha and Sushruta Samitha, researchers hunted for potential remedies for non-healing wounds. The guiding light for them were key words like shaheer, vran, aagantu, dusht-vran and makshika. This helped in identifying three plant-based remedies - Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Durva Grass (Cynodon dactylon), and Parnabeej (Kalanchoe pinnata) shown to help in treating wounds in Ayurvedic texts. Further on, they followed a step-by-step procedure to prepare the cocktail as given in the text using sesame oil as the base, which was also picked from the historical texts to be beneficial for treating wounds. These cocktails were tested in labs to check their individual potential to end bacterial chatter.

Interestingly, these formulations showed varied, unique and excellent capacity to kill the two most common bacteria associated with wound infections Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. The Parnabeej-sesame oil mix turned out to be most fatal to wound bacteria. The plant-based cocktails not only blocked slimy biofilm army formation from scratch but were also effective in clearing pre-existing biofilms.

Talking about the research, Dr Freya Harrison, University of Warwick, says, “In this study, the authors tested their Ayurvedic preparations against bacteria growing as multicellular biofilm aggregates, and that’s a real strength of the work because this is how many bacteria grow in many real infections, and it makes them harder to kill.”

Overall, this study has laid down an approach to evaluate ancient medicines with modern day scientific methods. It is also a testimony of interdisciplinary research showing what happens if a doctor of modern medicine, traditional medical practitioner, and scientists come together.

The results saw Ayurveda in action by connecting historical and modern medicine. “Moving forward, evaluating historical remedies with modern scientific practice would allow us to explore hitherto unknown treatments,” says Dr Karishma Kaushik from Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, the corresponding author of the study.

It is important to note that the study was not an exact replication of what the texts said. Present-day limitations like usage of grinder in the place of mortar-pestle or commercially available ingredients like sesame seed oil could result in some variations.

At the same time, it opens the possibility of further evaluating these plant-based remedies for wound biofilms.

Disclaimer: This work is at the stage of a scientific study, and is not intended to recommend the use of these treatments.

(The author is a PhD Graduate student, Special Center for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)