Candida albicans enhances initial biofilm growth of Cutibacterium acnes under aerobic conditions

Abstract

Candida albicans and Cutibacterium acnes are opportunistic pathogens that co-colonize the human body. They are involved in biofilm-related infections of implanted medical devices. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of these species to interact and form polymicrobial biofilms. SEM imaging and adhesion assays showed that C. acnes adhesion to C. albicans did not have a preference for a specific morphological state of C. albicans; bacteria adhered to both hyphal and yeast forms of C. albicans. C. albicans did not influence growth of C. acnes under anaerobic growth conditions, however under aerobic growth condition, C. albicans enhanced early C. acnes biofilm formation. This favorable impact of C. albicans was not mediated by secreted compounds accumulating in the medium, but required the presence of metabolically active C. albicans. The ability of these microorganisms to interact together could modulate the physiopathology of infections.

Keywords:

• polymicrobial biofilm
• Candida albicans
• Cutibacterium acnes
• bacterium-fungus interactions
• adhesion

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Professor Mahmoud A. Ghannoum (Case Western Reserve University) and Professor Christophe Burucoa (University Hospital of Poitiers) who kindly supplied the C. albicans strain CAI4 carrying pYPB-ADHpt-yEGFP and C. acnes CE1, respectively.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) (Research Grant 2016); this work was also supported by the 2015-2020 State-Region Planning Contracts (CPER), European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), and intramural funds from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the University of Poitiers. BPK is supported by a grant from the University of Amsterdam for research into the focal point ‘Oral Infections and Inflammation’. Purchase of the Bioflux Z1000 system was made possible by a grant to BPK from the Division for Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) with financial aid from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).