Advances in the progress of anti-bacterial biofilms properties of acetic acid

Bacterial biofilms are considered to be the hindrance in the treatment of chronic wound, because of their tolerance toward antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents. They also have strong ability to escape from the host immune attack. Acetic acid, as a kind of organic weak acid, can disturb the biofilms by freely diffusing through the bacterial biofilms and bacterial cell membrane structure. Then the acid dissociates to release the hydrogen ions, leading to the disorder of the acid-base imbalance, change of protein conformation, and the degradation of the DNA within the membranes. This paper reviews the literature on the characteristics and treatment strategies of the bacterial biofilms and the acetic acid intervention on them, so as to demonstrate the roles acetic acid may play in the treatment of chronic wound, and thus provide a convincing treatment strategy for this kind of disease.