Abstract
Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically infect a bacterial host. They play a great role in the modern biotechnology and antibiotic-resistant microbe era. Since the discovery of phages, their application as a control agent has faced challenges that made antibiotics a better fit for combating pathogenic bacteria. Recently, with the novel sequencing technologies providing new insight into the nature of bacteriophages, their application has a second chance to be used. However, novel challenges need to be addressed to provide proper strategies for their practical application. This review focuses on addressing these challenges by initially introducing the nature of bacteriophages and describing the phage-host-dependent strategies for phage application. We also describe the effect of the long-term application of phages in natural environments and other bacterial communities. Overall, this review gathered crucial information for the future application of phages. We predict the use of phages will not be the only control strategy against pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, more studies must be done for low-risk control methods against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
Highlights
Bacteria are among the simplest forms of life, numerous and inhabitants of almost any environment, including places with acidic and hot conditions [1]
Bacteriophages have been used to control diarrhea caused by E. coli by oral administration of bacteriophages in pig models after challenging their host with the pathogenic bacteria [41,42]
Phage applied to A. hydrophila- challenged mice which hearts, livers, spleens, lungs and kidneys were collected for determination of bacterial loads
Summary
Bacteria are among the simplest forms of life, numerous and inhabitants of almost any environment, including places with acidic and hot conditions [1]. Other pathogenic bacteria cause of a high mortality rate in humans and animals [5,6,7]. Studies showed that many pathogenic bacteria share a common mechanism to survive and live in their host cells. Insights into mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity can lead us to understand how available control agents can stop bacteria from attachment and growth on host cells, and provide information for better targeting the pathogen upon infection. The bacterial cell wall composition containing proteins and polysaccharides help bacteria during their attachment. YadA forms a capsule-like cover on the surface of bacteria protecting the bacteria from the defense mechanisms of host cells [13]. Bacterial cells adopt resistant genes and evolve and survive in the presence of antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause a wide range of diseases worldwide. Due to the mass production of antibiotics, the first solution against bacterial diseases is still the application of antibiotics [20] and novel methods for controlling bacterial infections are highly necessary
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