Fighting Fire with Fire: Phage Potential for the Treatment of E. coli O157 Infection

Fighting Fire with Fire: Phage Potential for the Treatment of E. coli O157 Infection

Blog Article

Hemolytic⁻uremic syndrome is a life-threating disease most often associated with Shiga toxin-producing microorganisms like Escherichia coli (STEC), including E.coli O157:H7.Shiga toxin is encoded by resident prophages present within this bacterium, and Greeting Card both its production and release depend on the induction of Shiga toxin-encoding prophages.

Consequently, treatment of STEC infections tend to be largely supportive rather than antibacterial, in part due to concerns about exacerbating such prophage induction.Here we explore STEC O157:H7 prophage induction in vitro as it pertains to phage therapy—the application of bacteriophages as antibacterial agents to treat bacterial infections—to curtail prophage induction events, while also reducing STEC O157:H7 presence.We observed that cultures treated with strictly lytic phages, despite being lysed, produce substantially fewer Shiga toxin-encoding temperate-phage virions than untreated STEC controls.

We therefore suggest that phage therapy could have utility as a prophylactic treatment of individuals suspected of having been recently exposed to STEC, especially if prophage induction Bosch SMS46MI01G Freestanding Dishwasher Stainless Steel and by extension Shiga toxin production is not exacerbated.