Bacteriophage

 

Most bacteria, specifically pathogenic bacteria, have associated bacteriophages that can take over the bacterial cellular machinery and lyse the bacterial cell to release new phage partials. As such, there was much interest in using "bacteriophage therapy" as a means to prevent and cure infection since their discovery in the early 1900's. However the advent of antibiotics halted the majority of this research until the past decade, which has seen renewed interest in phages due to the increasing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Although phage therapy does show some promise, it has significant limitations in that bacteria are only susceptible to infection by phage as discrete stages of growth.


It is the lytic system of the bacteriophage that actually lyses the infected bacterial cell, resulting in death. All double stranded DNA bacteriophage contains a lytic system consisting of a holin and at least one mureine hydrolase or "lysin" which is capable of degrading the bacterial cell wall to allow phage release (see Young et al., 2000, for a review). Typically, the holin is expressed in the late stages of infection forming a pore in the cell membrane, allowing the lysin to gain access to the cell wall peptidoglycan, resulting in the release of progeny phage. Significantly, in Gram positive bacteria, exogenously added lysin can lyse the cell wall of healthy, uninfected cells, producing "lysis from without".

 

What are Enzybiotics?
Phage Associated Enzymes (PAE) are enzymes that act as antibiotics.

What do Enzybiotics do?

  • Limit the spread of infection
  • Protect mucosal surfaces
  • Kill targeted bacteria almost on contact

How are Enzybiotics used?
Applied directly to designated areas by:

  • Spray
  • Lozenge
  • Mouthwash
  • Tampon
  • Suppository
  • Catheters
  • Inhaler
  • Bandages
  • Eye Drops