**Author details**

*Pseudomonas aeruginosa - An Armory Within*

the alginate biosynthesis [110, 112].

tory network is still a puzzle to be resolved.

promise for CF treatment.

**4. Conclusions**

**Figure 6.**

production *in vivo.*

**5. Perspectives**

of glutamine to 2-ketoglutarate, which is dependent on O2 availability [108, 110]. Another positive regulator of AlgD is AlgU [111], but the only negative regulator known is the RpoN, a sigma factor, that regulates nitrogen metabolism. RpoN is increased by disruption of pyrimidine synthesis and decreased by the supplementation with uracil, showing that a high level of RpoN, in the RSCV form, may block

*Regulators of AlgD in alginate production. Negative and positive regulators found up-today.*

Studies on the biosynthetic pathway of biofilms show that chelation of iron by lactoferrin destabilizes the bacterial membrane [113], which combined with xylitol hinders the ability of the bacteria to respond to iron deficiency [101], showing some

*P. aeruginosa* is a relevant pathogen given its widespread prevalence across different organs. The latent menace it poses for inpatients is a liability for institutions. For this, and the negative prognosis that *P. aeruginosa* infections in CF patients has, it is one of the subjects more researched for the last 40 years. The efforts have resulted in understanding the process of invasion, immune response, and bacterial tactics to achieve chronic infection. The complexity of the metabolic changes caused by the contact between the host and the bacteria is so extensive that the selection of variables for in vitro studies is difficult since the production of biofilm by *P. aeruginosa* seems to be regulated by everything, O2, N2, Fe2+, Pi, and NaCl. This multiregula-

Scientists agree that suppression of alginate production is vital to treat CF patients, but in 40 years of research, little has been achieved in suppressing its

The advancement of techniques with high output data like microarrays, proteomes, and mass spectrometry are closing the breach among the different approaches that have been used to tackle *P. aeruginosa* infections. For example, mass-spectrometry has verified through metabolite detection the metabolic pathways studied by molecular biologists and enzymologists. The integration of these studies with the physicians is needed to assess the areas that show more promises to control alginate production and *P. aeruginosa* eradication after it became a chronic

**40**

infection.

Sandra Grumelli Independent Researcher, Centro de Investigaciones en Medicina Respiratoria, Córdoba, Argentina

\*Address all correspondence to: sgrumelli@yahoo.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
