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| SHORT COMMUNICATION |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 5 | Page : 99-100 |
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Investigation of the hypothesis of biofilm formation in coronavirus (COVID-19)
Saeid Besharati1, Parissa Farnia1, Poopak Farnia2, Jalaledin Ghanavi1, Ali Akbar Velayati1
1 Mycobacteriology Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technology in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| Date of Submission | 12-Jun-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 18-Jul-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 13-Aug-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Prof. Parissa Farnia
Mycobacteriology Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran
Iran
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/bbrj.bbrj_126_20
How to cite this article:
Besharati S, Farnia P, Farnia P, Ghanavi J, Velayati AA. Investigation of the hypothesis of biofilm formation in coronavirus (COVID-19). Biomed Biotechnol Res J 2020;4, Suppl S1:99-100 |
How to cite this URL:
Besharati S, Farnia P, Farnia P, Ghanavi J, Velayati AA. Investigation of the hypothesis of biofilm formation in coronavirus (COVID-19). Biomed Biotechnol Res J [serial online] 2020 [cited 2023 Mar 23];4, Suppl S1:99-100. Available from: https://www.bmbtrj.org/text.asp?2020/4/5/99/292076 |
Biofilm was explored several centuries ago by researching the link between their formation and the persistence of the disease. In 1684, Antoine van Leeuwenhoek described the plaque on the tooth under a microscope. The accumulation of microorganisms that have the ability to bind to the surface is called biofilm. After attaching to the surface, they form a layer around them, thus stabilizing bacterial infections and their resistance. Biofilm-forming bacteria are more stable than planktonic.[1]
Biofilm formation is one of the causes of infectious diseases that have been observed not only in bacteria but also in viruses. Like the formation of biofilms in bacteria and viruses, a collection of viruses has formed. This viral accumulation may support the virus in chronic infection [Figure 1].[2] Despite the similarities between bacterial and viral biofilms, they have differences, one of the important differences being that the matrix of normal biofilm formation is mainly made by the microbe itself, while the matrix of viral assemblies is produced by the infected cell.[2] | Figure 1: Model of viral transmission through viral “biofilms,” including (i) viral biofilm formation at the surface of infected cells, (ii) transfer of these infectious adhesive structures through dynamic interactions between infected and uninfected cells (permissive or nonpermissive cells). The rupture and adhesion of biofilm fragments to the surface of these cells might lead to both the direct infection of permissive target cells (iii) and/or the indirect infection through contacts with other cells (e.g., dendritic cells or nonpermissive cells) that might capture viral biofilms on their cell surface (iv), and transfer them to target permissive cells (v) (”transinfection”)[2]
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Studies by Pais-Correia et al. showed that the mechanism of transmission of a novel virus is based on the production of extracellular viral particle collections whose structure, composition, and function are similar to those of bacterial biofilms.[3]
At first, COVID-19 was observed with symptoms in the respiratory tract, but over time gastrointestinal symptoms were observed in patients and it was shown that not only in the respiratory tract but also the virus can cause gastrointestinal infections. Biofilm formation in the gastrointestinal tract may cause more severe gastrointestinal symptoms, or it may even cause morphological changes in the stool sample and an adhesive layer forms on it. Further investigation is needed to determine exactly what the material of this adhesive layer is, but to what extent the hypothesis of the possibility of biofilm formation in this virus may be correct!
The concentration of viral particles can be very important. Beneath each layer of biofilm may be an accumulation of mutant viruses. Biofilm can help protect the virus from the immune system. Due to the lack of definitive treatment for coronavirus (COVID-19), finding a vaccine so far, as well as having a targeted drug to kill the biofilm, can be very dangerous and worrying if the coronavirus virus (COVID-19) hypothesis is correct.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Penesyan A, Nagy SS, Kjelleberg S, Gillings MR, Paulsen IT. Rapid microevolution of biofilm cells in response to antibiotics. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes 2019;5:34.  |
| 2. | Thoulouze MI, Alcover A. Can viruses form biofilms? Trends Microbiol 2011;19:257-62. |
| 3. | Pais-Correia AM, Sachse M, Guadagnini S, Robbiati V, Lasserre R, Gessain A, et al. Biofilm-like extracellular viral assemblies mediate HTLV-1 cell-to-cell transmission at virological synapses. Nat Med 2010;16:83-9. |
[Figure 1]
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