Chronic wounds are a major healthcare burden, with huge public health and economic impact. Microbial infections are the single most important cause of chronic, non-healing wounds. Chronic wound infections typically form biofilms, which are notoriously recalcitrant to conventional antibiotics. This prompts the need for alternative or adjunct 'anti-biofilm' approaches, notably those that account for the unique chronic wound biofilm microenvironment. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in non-conventional antimicrobial approaches for chronic wound biofilms, looking beyond standard antibiotic therapies. These non-conventional strategies are discussed under three groups. The first group focuses on treatment approaches that directly kill or inhibit microbes in chronic wound biofilms, using mechanisms or delivery strategies distinct from antibiotics. The second group discusses antimicrobial approaches that modify the biological, chemical or biophysical parameters in the chronic wound microenvironment, which in turn enables the disruption and removal of biofilms. Finally, therapeutic approaches that affect both, biofilm bacteria and microenvironment factors, are discussed. Understanding the advantages and limitations of these recent approaches, their stage of development and role in biofilm management, could lead to new treatment paradigms for chronic wound infections. Towards this end, we discuss the possibility that non-conventional antimicrobial therapeutics and targets could expose the 'chink in the armor' of chronic wound biofilms, thereby providing much-needed alternative or adjunct strategies for wound infection management.
Keywords: antimicrobials; biofilm; chronic wounds; nanoparticles; pH; phages; probiotics.