Bioprospecting Staphylococcus Phages with Therapeutic and Bio-Control Potential.

Joseph M Ochieng’ Oduor,Marianne W Mureithi,Atunga Nyachieo,Mikael Skurnik,Ermir Kadija

doi:10.3390/v12020133

Abstract

Emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a serious threat to the public health. This is also true for Staphylococcus aureus and other staphylococci. Staphylococcus phages Stab20, Stab21, Stab22, and Stab23, were isolated in Albania. Based on genomic and phylogenetic analysis, they were classified to genus Kayvirus of the subfamily Twortvirinae. In this work, we describe the in-depth characterization of the phages that electron microscopy confirmed to be myoviruses. These phages showed tolerance to pH range of 5.4 to 9.4, to maximum UV radiation energy of 25 µJ/cm2, to temperatures up to 45 °C, and to ethanol concentrations up to 25%, and complete resistance to chloroform. The adsorption rate constants of the phages ranged between 1.0 × 10−9 mL/min and 4.7 × 10−9 mL/min, and the burst size was from 42 to 130 plaque-forming units. The phages Stab20, 21, 22, and 23, originally isolated using Staphylococcus xylosus as a host, demonstrated varied host ranges among different Staphylococcus strains suggesting that they could be included in cocktail formulations for therapeutic or bio-control purpose. Phage particle proteomes, consisting on average of ca 60–70 gene products, revealed, in addition to straight-forward structural proteins, also the presence of enzymes such DNA polymerase, helicases, recombinases, exonucleases, and RNA ligase polymer. They are likely to be injected into the bacteria along with the genomic DNA to take over the host metabolism as soon as possible after infection.

Highlights

The WHO considers the rapid emergency of Multi-Drug-Resistant Bacteria (MDRB) as a threat to global public health [1]
MDRB are predicted to become a major burden to the global economy as the World Bank estimates that by the year 2050 the bacteria might result in an annual gross domestic production (GDP) loss worth 120 trillion US dollars [3]
The predicted reduction in GDP will be due to increased morbidity and mortality among the workforce, and livestock loss caused by infectious MDRB pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus

Summary

Introduction

The WHO considers the rapid emergency of Multi-Drug-Resistant Bacteria (MDRB) as a threat to global public health [1]. It is predicted that MDRB-related infections will cause about 10 million deaths annually by 2050 [2]. MDRB are predicted to become a major burden to the global economy as the World Bank estimates that by the year 2050 the bacteria might result in an annual gross domestic production (GDP) loss worth 120 trillion US dollars [3]. The predicted reduction in GDP will be due to increased morbidity and mortality among the workforce, and livestock loss caused by infectious MDRB pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. S. aureus is a pathogen that is an etiological agent of bacteremia, soft skin and tissue infections, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, meningitis, haematogenous organ infections, food poisoning, and toxic shock syndrome in humans [4,5].

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Results

Conclusion