A multicomponent model for biofilm-drug interaction

Abstract

We developed a tri-component model for the biofilm and solvent mixture, in which the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) network, bacteria and effective solvent consisting of the solvent, nutrient, drugs, etc., are modeled explicitly. The tri-component mixture is assumed incompressible as a whole, while inter-component mixing, dissipation, and conversion are allowed.A linear stability analysis is conducted on constant equilibria revealing up to two unstable modes corresponding to possible bacterial growth induced by the bacterial and EPS production and dependent upon the regime of the model parameters. A 1-D transient simulation is carried out to investigate the non-linear dynamics of the EPS network, bacteria distribution, drug and nutrient distribution in a channel with and without shear. Finally, the transient biofilm dynamics are studied with respect to a host of diffusive properties of the drug and nutrient present in the biofilm.