The Cystic Fibrosis (CF)

It’s a mutation in the glycoprotein CFTR (that have a rol as a chloride channel), which affects the entire system, including the immune system. When a patient is diagnosticated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in his lungs, it is too difficult to eradicate it. One reason of this it’s the biofilm generated by P. aerugunosa, which protects this opportunistic pathogen from any attack, including the treatments with antibiotics. Our project aims to generate a bacteria capable of weakening the biofilm breaking one of the main components of this protection: the arginate; and shutting down the communication between the Pseudomonas colonies. The E. coli is capable to use the biofilms, making it a good candidate for use as a Trojan horse. We going to test the above mentioned functions in this chassis, using in vitro biofilms.

Fig 1: Construct that allows E. coli to weak Pseudomonas's biofilm.