Biofilm formation by non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae confers resistance to complement-mediated clearance

Nouria Belkacem; Ala-Eddine Deghmane; Muhamed-Kheir Taha

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiad584

Biofilm formation by non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae confers resistance to complement-mediated clearance

J Infect Dis. 2023 Dec 19:jiad584. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad584. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Nouria Belkacem¹, Ala-Eddine Deghmane¹, Muhamed-Kheir Taha¹

Affiliation

¹ Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Invasive Bacterial Infections Unit and National Reference Centre for Meningococci and Haemophilus influenzae, Paris, France.

PMID: 38114092
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiad584

Abstract

Biofilm formation is suggested to be associated with phenotype changes compared to planktonic form. We screened 1092 Haemophilus influenzae isolates for their genetic relationships and then selected 29 isolates from different genotypes and phenotypes and tested their ability to form biofilm. Our data showed a higher capacity of non-typeable isolates and particularly isolates from respiratory and genital infections to form biofilm compared to typeable isolates. This ability to form biofilm was also correlated with reduced deposition of the complement component C3b on biofilm-involved bacteria. These data suggest that the biofilm formation contributes to the virulence of non-typeable H. influenzae.

Keywords: Haemophilus influenzae; biofilm; complement; genes; genomic analysis.