Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Rachel Yoon Kyung Chang, Yuko Okamoto, Sandra Morales, Elizabeth Kutter, Hak-Kim Chan
Summary: This study aimed to formulate biologically stable phage hydrogels for controlled release of infective phages. The release profiles of phages were evaluated in different hydrogel formulations, showing promising results with certain combinations. The study demonstrated that certain hydrogels can maintain the stability of phages during storage.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Nitasha D. Menon, Samuel Penziner, Elizabeth T. Montano, Raymond Zurich, David T. Pride, Bipin G. Nair, Geetha B. Kumar, Victor Nizet
Summary: Bacteriophage therapy is an alternative treatment to antibiotics for multidrug-resistant pathogens. This study found that phage therapy can lead to the emergence of phage-resistant mutants with pyomelanin pigmentation, but these mutants are less virulent due to large genomic deletions and retain susceptibility to the antibiotic colistin. This suggests that they do not pose a contraindication to using anti-pseudomonal phage therapy.
ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY
(2022)
Article
Virology
Ismahen Akremi, Maya Merabishvili, Mouna Jlidi, Adel Haj Brahim, Manel Ben Ali, Anis Karoui, Rob Lavigne, Jeroen Wagemans, Jean-Paul Pirnay, Mamdouh Ben Ali
Summary: This study isolated and identified four lytic Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophages, which showed activity against a wide range of P. aeruginosa strains under various temperature and pH conditions. The phages had high sequence identity to Pseudomonas phage PAK_P1 and were assigned to the Pakpunavirus genus. This research contributes to establishing phage therapy as an alternative strategy for managing multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa infections in Tunisia.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Mikael Skurnik
Summary: Due to the increasing antibiotic resistance, it is necessary to address the issue promptly. Phage therapy, as a precision therapy for bacterial infections, has gained attention, but there are still unresolved issues such as clear instructions, practical experience, and seamless coordination.
Review
Microbiology
Olivia Williams Barber, Iria Manas Miramontes, Manu Jain, A. Egon Ozer, M. Erica Hartmann
Summary: This review discusses bacterial resistance mechanisms, the current state of bacteriophage therapy, and how bacteriophage therapy can enhance strategies to combat resistance, with a focus on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the role of efflux pumps in antimicrobial resistance. It also covers methods to prevent antimicrobial efflux using efflux pump inhibitors and phage steering.
Article
Virology
Peter Evseev, Julia Bocharova, Dmitriy Shagin, Igor Chebotar
Summary: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogen that can cause infections in humans, especially in hospital patients with compromised host defence mechanisms. Filamentous bacteriophages, including those infecting P. aeruginosa, can contribute to its virulence and influence the course of the disease. Genomic studies have revealed a higher diversity of filamentous bacteriophages than previously thought, with some of them being distantly related to known phages. Several new taxonomic groups of filamentous bacteriophages have been proposed.
Review
Infectious Diseases
Dana Holger, Razieh Kebriaei, Taylor Morrisette, Katherine Lev, Jose Alexander, Michael Rybak
Summary: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common pathogen causing healthcare-associated diseases and is highly resistant to many antibiotics, posing challenges in treatment. Bacteriophages, as viruses targeting and infecting bacterial cells, offer promise as an alternative therapy for multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa infections. Further studies on phage pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are needed to guide successful phage therapy for these infections.
Review
Infectious Diseases
Andrew Vaitekenas, Anna S. Tai, Joshua P. Ramsay, Stephen M. Stick, Anthony Kicic
Summary: Antimicrobial resistance is a significant threat in modern healthcare, particularly for bacterial infections in individuals with chronic conditions like cystic fibrosis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections are a major factor in CF lung disease, with high resistance to multiple antimicrobials. Phages show promise as an alternative therapy, but their narrow host range and phage resistance evolution may limit their efficacy. Developing phage mixtures with broad host ranges to prevent resistance evolution is a potential strategy, but further research is needed on CF-derived P. aeruginosa phage resistance mechanisms for effective phage therapy formulations.
Article
Microbiology
Samuel Namonyo, Gilda Carvalho, Jianhua Guo, Karen D. Weynberg
Summary: This study isolated and characterized four novel phages against multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical strains from Australia, and proposed their potential use as phage therapy candidates.
Article
Virology
Bahareh Lashtoo Aghaee, Mohammadali Khan Mirzaei, Mohammad Yousef Alikhani, Ali Mojtahedi, Corinne F. Maurice
Summary: Antibiotic resistance is a significant global threat, and using a combination of phages and antibiotics may be an effective strategy for treating multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Dipesh Khanal, Rachel Yoon Kyung Chang, Christopher Hick, Sandra Morales, Hak-Kim Chan
Summary: Intestinal Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major concern in immunocompromised patients, and phage therapy is a promising alternative to antibiotics. In this study, Pseudomonas-targeting phage PEV20 was used to develop tablets suitable for oral delivery. The formulation method can be applied to produce tablets containing other phages effective against enteric bacterial infections.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Tatsuya Shirai, Mao Akagawa, Miho Makino, Manami Ishii, Ayaka Arai, Norika Nagasawa, Mitsuru Sada, Ryusuke Kimura, Kaori Okayama, Taisei Ishioka, Haruyuki Ishii, Shinichiro Hirai, Akihide Ryo, Haruyoshi Tomita, Hirokazu Kimura
Summary: Despite increasing evidence of clinical impact, the molecular evolution of the gene bla(PDC), which encodes Pseudomonas-derived cephalosporinase (PDC), remains unknown. Through evolutionary analysis, it was found that bla(PDC) diverged from a common ancestor approximately 4660 years ago, resulting in the formation of eight clonal variants. The functionality of PDC in antibiotic resistance remains similar regardless of genotype.
Article
Biology
Meaghan Castledine, Daniel Padfield, Pawel Sierocinski, Jesica Soria Pascual, Adam Hughes, Lotta Makinen, Ville-Petri Friman, Jean-Paul Pirnay, Maya Merabishvili, Daniel de Vos, Angus Buckling, Gisela Storz
Summary: With rising antibiotic resistance, there is increasing interest in using bacteriophages to treat pathogenic bacteria. However, one limitation is that bacteria can quickly evolve resistance to phage therapy. This study investigates the parallels between in vitro and in vivo evolutionary dynamics and suggests that in vitro experiments can provide useful insights for predicting clinical outcomes.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Ana Mafalda Pinto, Alberta Faustino, Lorenzo M. Pastrana, Manuel Banobre-Lopez, Sanna Sillankorva
Summary: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major pathogen responsible for nosocomial and chronic infections, with increasing antibiotic resistance posing a challenge for treatment. Bacteriophage therapy has shown promise as an alternative, with this study highlighting the importance of careful selection and combination of phages in formulations to maximize efficacy and prevent emergence of resistant bacteria.
Article
Microbiology
Xu Yang, Anwarul Haque, Shigenobu Matsuzaki, Tetsuya Matsumoto, Shigeki Nakamura
Summary: The study investigated the use of bacteriophage KPP10 for treating Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced pneumonia in mouse models. Results showed that phage treatment significantly improved survival rate, reduced bacterial count and inflammation, suggesting the potential of phage therapy for P. aeruginosa lung infections.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Jianing Wang, Waseem Raza, Gaofei Jiang, Zhang Yi, Bryden Fields, Samuel Greenrod, Ville-Petri Friman, Alexandre Jousset, Qirong Shen, Zhong Wei
Summary: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by soil bacteria have been found to influence the biocontrol potential of plant pathogens due to their antimicrobial activity. This study investigated the adaptation of Ralstonia solanacearum bacteria to VOCs produced by a biocontrol bacterium and how these adaptations affect its virulence. The findings showed that VOC selection led to increased VOC-tolerance and cross-tolerance to antibiotics, resulting in a loss of pathogenicity in plants. The genetic analysis revealed mutations in genes associated with antimicrobial permeability and virulence. Overall, microbial VOCs are important drivers of bacterial evolution and can be utilized in biocontrol to select for less virulent pathogens.
Article
Microbiology
Keming Yang, Xiaofang Wang, Rujiao Hou, Chunxia Lu, Zhe Fan, Jingxuan Li, Shuo Wang, Yangchun Xu, Qirong Shen, Ville-Petri Friman, Zhong Wei
Summary: This study investigates the influence of rhizosphere phage communities on soil suppressiveness and bacterial wilt disease. It shows that healthy plants are associated with phage communities that have stronger control over the pathogen R. solanacearum. Additionally, phages that target pathogen-inhibiting bacteria are more abundant in diseased plant microbiomes. These findings suggest that rhizosphere phage communities play a crucial role in determining bacterial wilt disease outcomes and soil suppressiveness.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Shujian Yuan, Ville-Petri Friman, Jose Luis Balcazar, Xiaoxuan Zheng, Mao Ye, Mingming Sun, Feng Hu
Summary: This study investigated the assembly processes of bacterial and viral communities in clean and OCP-contaminated soils in China. The results showed that assembly of bacterial taxa and genes was dominated by a deterministic process, while assembly of viral taxa and AMGs was driven by a stochastic process. Additionally, viruses showed promise for the dissemination of functional genes among bacterial communities in OCP-contaminated soil.
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Yian Gu, Zhidan Li, Peng Lei, Rui Wang, Hong Xu, Ville-Petri Friman
Summary: Through sampling in Hongze Lake during both Autumn and Spring, it was found that bacterial sediment communities were governed by deterministic community assembly processes due to abiotic environmental drivers, while distance-decay relationships were relatively stable with both sampling time points for both bacterial and microeukaryotic communities. This suggests that abiotic environmental factors play an important role in explaining mainly bacterial community assembly in the sediment, but other potential drivers, such as spatial heterogeneity and biotic species interactions, also need to be considered.
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Hanpeng Liao, Chen Liu, Chaofan Ai, Tian Gao, Qiu-E Yang, Zhen Yu, Shaoming Gao, Shungui Zhou, Ville-Petri Friman
Summary: By studying mesophilic and thermophilic bacteria and their viruses during industrial-scale hyperthermophilic composting (HTC), it was found that the dynamics and activity of virus-bacteria are closely related and play an important role in nutrient cycling. The viruses specific to mesophilic bacteria encode and express several auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) linked to carbon cycling and impact nutrient turnover alongside bacteria. The positive correlation between nutrient turnover and virus-host ratio suggests a positive relationship between ecosystem functioning, viral abundances, and viral activity. DNA viruses were found to be the main drivers of nutrient cycling during HTC. These findings suggest that viruses could be used as indicators of microbial ecosystem functioning to optimize productivity of biotechnological and agricultural systems.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bryden Fields, Sara Moeskjaer, William J. Deakin, Emma K. Moffat, Niels Roulund, Stig U. Andersen, J. Peter W. Young, Ville-Petri Friman
Summary: This study compared the impact of different clover varieties and genotypes on the structure of Rhizobium populations in root nodules. The results showed that different clover varieties and genotypes selected for different Rhizobium communities, and the strength of host filtering was positively correlated with symbiotic efficiency.
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael Bottery, Michael A. Brockhurst
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Catriona M. A. Thompson, James P. J. Hall, Govind M. Chandra, Carlo Martins, Gerhard H. Saalbach, Supakan Panturat, Susannah M. Bird, Samuel W. Ford, Richard H. A. Little, Ainelen G. Piazza, Ellie Harrison, Robert W. Jackson, Michael A. Brockhurst, Jacob G. Malone
Summary: This study characterizes a plasmid translational regulator, RsmQ, which can switch the lifestyle of Pseudomonas fluorescens from motile to sessile by interfering with the host's translational regulatory network. Comparative analyses indicate the widespread importance of RsmQ in manipulating bacterial behavior across different host taxa and ecological niches.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Elliot Macdonald, Rosanna Wright, James P. R. Connolly, Henrik Strahl, Michael Brockhurst, Stineke van Houte, Tim R. Blower, Tracy Palmer, Giuseppina Mariano
Summary: Competitive bacteria-bacteriophage interactions have led to the evolution of bacterial defense systems, including the newly discovered Shield system in Pseudomonas. The core component ShdA is sufficient to mediate bacterial immunity against multiple phages and can also affect the organization of host chromosomal DNA. Comparative genomic approaches identified four subtypes of Shield with additional components that can modulate the activity of ShdA and provide additional phage defense. This research sheds light on a novel mechanism of bacterial immunity and the role of RmuC domains in phage defense.
Article
Microbiology
Samuel T. E. Greenrod, Martina Stoycheva, John Elphinstone, Ville-Petri Friman
Summary: Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a destructive group of plant pathogenic bacteria and the causative agent of bacterial wilt disease. Experimental studies have attributed RSSC virulence to insertion sequences (IS), transposable genetic elements which can both disrupt and activate host genes. Yet, the global diversity and distribution of RSSC IS are unknown.
Editorial Material
Microbiology
Michael Brockhurst, Jennifer Cavet, Stephen P. Diggle, David Grainger, Riccardo Mangenelli, Hana Sychrova, Isabel Martin-Verstraete, Martin Welch, Tracy Palmer, Gavin H. Thomas
Editorial Material
Microbiology
Michael Brockhurst, Jennifer Cavet, Stephen P. Diggle, David Grainger, Riccardo Mangenelli, Hana Sychrova, Isabel Martin-Verstraete, Martin Welch, Tracy Palmer, Gavin H. Thomas
Article
Microbiology
Susannah M. Bird, Samuel Ford, Catriona M. A. Thompson, Richard Little, James P. J. Hall, Robert W. Jackson, Jacob Malone, Ellie Harrison, Michael A. Brockhurst
Summary: Compensatory mutations that reduce the cost of plasmid carriage have been observed in the plant rhizosphere. These mutations can mitigate the fitness cost of carrying a plasmid, which is important for the survival of bacterial populations living within complex microbial communities in their environmental niche. In this study, compensatory mutations affecting the chromosomal global regulatory system gacA/gacS were found to ameliorate the fitness cost of carrying a large conjugative plasmid in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 in the plant rhizosphere.
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Karoline Rehm, Vera Vollenweider, Shaohua Gu, Ville-Petri Friman, Rolf Kuemmerli, Zhong Wei, Laurent Bigler
Summary: In this study, a novel citrate-based siderophore called chryseochelin A was identified and found to promote the health and growth of plants. The structure of this siderophore, along with its unstable isomer chryseochelin B and fatty acid derivative chryseochelin C, was elucidated using NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. It was demonstrated that chryseochelin A can reduce the access to iron of the plant pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, indicating its potential in plant protection.
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Jianing Wang, Xiaofang Wang, Keming Yang, Chunxia Lu, Bryden Fields, Yangchun Xu, Qirong Shen, Zhong Wei, Ville-Petri Friman
Summary: This study compared the evolution of phage resistance-virulence trade-offs in Ralstonia solanacearum bacterium at different temperature environments. The results showed that phages reduced the density of R. solanacearum, but did not affect the final level of phage resistance. Instead, small colony variants with increased growth rate and mutations in the quorum-sensing (QS) signaling receptor gene evolved in both temperature treatments. Interestingly, these variants were also phage-resistant and reached higher frequencies in the presence of phages. Evolution of phage resistance resulted in metabolic costs, leading to reduced biofilm formation and virulence in the bacteria.