Phages: tiny superheroes combat antibiotic resistant bacteria
name: Huang Wanzhen Tao Shuhan Ma Tianyu
Overview of antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance:
• occurs when bacteria evolve and find new
ways to beat the medicine(1)
• super bacteria which are insensitive to
antibiotics.
• Happens with the deployment of the
antibiotics
Global threat:
• global health, food security, and development (1)
• now killing 700,000 people a year
• 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if not
improved(2)
• still accelerating (1)
• bacterial infections harder to treat including
pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and
salmonellosis(1)
longer hospital stays, higher medical costs, and
increased mortality
Phages Biology
The structure of phage:
1. phage structures are diverse.
2. nucleic acid may be ds DNA, ds RNA, ss DNA, ss RNA.
3 T4 has an icosahedral capsid and a linear double-stranded viral DNA
(4).
4. The Tail contain tail fibers and tail pins. These structures bind to
receptors on the bacteria surface(4).
3
Infection Process:
1 1. a phage binds to the receptor of a
specific bacterium and injects its genome
into the bacterium
2. the genome replicates
3. the genome transcribes and
2
4 translates to produce new shell(4)
4. new genomes are packaged into
new shell and phage release toxins to lyse
bacterium wall(4)
Figure 2; the structure of phage T4(5)
Xu Jiashang
strengths and weaknesses
Advantages:
1. Excellent lysis of super bacteria that
antibiotics cannot kill(1).
2. Have a specific landing pad so they can
exclusively target only harmful bacteria(1).
3. Can rapid replication: use less medicine
dosage during the treatment is possible.
4. Reduce antibiotic use: use phages instead of
antibiotics because bacteria inevitably develop
resistance to antibiotics(1).
Disadvantages:
1. Narrow cleavage spectrum compared to
antibiotics(6).
2. Bacteria can develop tolerance to phages in only 1
or 2 days(6). Solution ：
3. Phages exist in the body microbiome so there may 1. cocktail therapy, also called HAART.
have antibodies against phages(1). 2. Antibiotics in combination with phages.
4. As a virus may have danger so the laws and 3. Neutralize antibodies against phages in the
regulations are hard to define(1). body.
5. Large cleavage of targeted bacteria may release 4. Neutralize the toxin produced by bacterial
harmful antigens(1). cleavage(1).
Future Prospects Future work
Synthetic phage engineering: Clinical trials:
• Create specialized or designer • To demonstrate the
phages efficacy and safety of
Industrial phage propagation phage application(8).
strain: • National and international
• Bacterial chassis strains: serve authorities are opening
as basic platforms for the their doors to such trials,
construction of industrial and are prone to regulate
phage propagation strains(8). phage therapy if it is found
• Use bioenensure the safety of to be effective and safe(8).
therapeutic phage
preparations and reduce the Potential
cost of phage production
People’s opinion:
substantially(8). • Active interest and a more
• engineering to construct
open mind(8).
bacterial chassis strains(8).
References
1. Kortright KE, Chan BK, Koff JL, Turner PE. Phage Therapy: A Renewed Approach to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. Cell Host Microbe. 2019 Feb 13;25(2):219–32.
2. Antibiotic resistance [Internet]. [cited 2021 Apr 17]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance
3. Bacteriophage: Structure, Replication and Uses - Learn Microbiology Online [Internet]. [cited 2021 Apr 18]. Available from: https://microbeonline.com/bacteriophage-structure-replication-use/
4. Bacteriophage: A solution to our antibiotics problem? How we can us a virus to fight bacterial infection [Internet]. [cited 2021 Apr 18]. Available from: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/bacteriophage-solution-antibiotics-problem/
5. Viruses [Internet]. [cited 2021 Apr 18]. Available from: https://cronodon.com/BioTech/Virus_Tech.html
6. Gurney J, Brown SP, Kaltz O, Hochberg ME. Steering phages to combat bacterial pathogens. Trends Microbiol. 2020 Feb;28(2):85–94.
7. Gordillo Altamirano FL, Barr JJ. Phage Therapy in the Postantibiotic Era. Clin Microbiol Rev [Internet]. 2019 Jan 16 [cited 2021 Apr 18];32(2). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6431132/
8. Górski A, Międzybrodzki R, Łobocka M, Głowacka-Rutkowska A, Bednarek A, Borysowski J, et al. Phage Therapy: What Have We Learned? Viruses. 2018 Jun;10(6):288.