Does Bordetella pertussis have enough fitness to adopt the biofilm mode of life

Bordetella pertussisis the causative agent of whooping cough or pertussis a highly contagious disease that affects respiratory tract Although vaccination has reduced mortality due to pertussis infection the efficacy of both current cellular and a cellular formulations produced from bacteria grown in stirred bioreactors is limited Thus the interest in the development of new vaccines increased In this scenario the hypothesis that B pertussiscolonizes and persists in their host through biofilm development started to be analyzed The biofilm formation starts with the adhesion of free floating bacteria to surfaces Then the production of extracellular polymeric substance is induced and this contributes to increase the anchor to the surface The resultant mature biofilm is more resistant to the external physical chemical or biological attack We here reviewed the main results showing the fitness of B pertussisreference strains and clinical isolates to adopt the biofilm lifestyle We outline the implications of biofilm development in the proteomic of cells growing in liquid media planktonic cells and in biofilm sessile cells In particular an over expression of the Bordetella intermediate protein A BipA a typical marker of intermediate phase in the surface of biofilm cells is analyzed Considering that bacterial biofilm are often immersed in liquid fluid and are subjected to hydrodynamic forces we here highlight the importance of shear stress in initial adhesion of B pertussison surfaces Finally the differences in the capacity of biofilm formation between reference strains and clinical isolates recovered in Argentina and USA are reviewed We conclude that elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in the association of biofilm and pathogenesis of Bordetella pertussis will be important for the development of new and more effective vaccines to control the resurgence of whooping cough