Bacteriophages can be reprogrammed to deliver antimicrobials for therapeutic and biocontrol purposes and are a promising alternative treatment to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
Fa-arun et al. developed a bacteriophage P4 cosmid system for the delivery of a Cas9 antimicrobial into clinically relevant human gut pathogens Shigella flexneri and Escherichia coli O157:H7. Their P4 cosmid design produces a high titer of cosmid-transducing units without contamination by a helper phage.
Further, they demonstrate that genetic engineering of the phage tail fiber improves the transduction efficiency of cosmid DNA in S. flexneri M90T as well as allows recognition of a nonnative host, E. coli O157:H7. They showed that the transducing units with the chimeric tails enhanced the overall Cas9-mediated killing of both pathogens.
In summary, this study demonstrates the potential of our P4 cas9 cosmid system as a DNA sequence-specific antimicrobial against clinically relevant gut pathogenic bacteria.
Image Credits: Fa-arun et al., ACS Synthetic Biology 2023
Targeting Phage Therapy will introduce the latest applications of bacteriophages. A whole session will be dedicated to phage therapy innovations. Full Program.
Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 Congress
6th World Conference
June 1-2, 2023 – Paris, France