A rapid microplate method for quantifying inhibition of bacterial adhesion to eukaryotic cells.

Adhesion of bacteria to the mucosal epithelial cell surface is the first step in infection, and studies have shown that inhibition of this step may be useful therapeutically. To test compounds that may prevent bacterial binding to a number of epithelial cell lines, we have developed a high-throughput adhesion assay using a microtitre plate system and bacteria that have been modified to express firefly luciferase. This method has proved to be a sensitive, rapid, and reproducible system for screening antiadhesive agents for their effects on bacterial adhesion.