Novel alternatives to antibiotics: bacteriophages, bacterial cell wall hydrolases, and antimicrobial peptides

Abstract

Summary Extensive research has been conducted on the development of three groups of naturally occurring antimicrobials as novel alternatives to antibiotics: bacteriophages (phages), bacterial cell wall hydrolases (BCWH), and antimicrobial peptides (AMP). Phage therapies are highly efficient, highly specific, and relatively cost‐effective. However, precautions have to be taken in the selection of phage candidates for therapeutic applications as some phages may encode toxins and others may, when integrated into host bacterial genome and converted to prophages in a lysogenic cycle, lead to bacterial immunity and altered virulence. BCWH are divided into three groups: lysozymes, autolysins, and virolysins. Among them, virolysins are the most promising candidates as they are highly specific and have the capability to rapidly lyse antibiotic‐resistant bacteria on a generally species‐specific basis. Finally, AMP are a family of natural proteins produced by eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms or encoded by phages. AMP are of vast diversity in term of size, structure, mode of action, and specificity and have a high potential for clinical therapeutic applications.

The antifungal effect of peptides from hymenoptera venom and their analogs

“…Candida most readily colonises the skin around the nails or the soft, moist areas around body openings. Candidiasis (also called candidosis or moniliasis) is usually a mild, superficial fungal infection; more rarely Candida enters the bloodstream, and invades the kidneys, lungs, endocardium, brain, or other organs, causing serious infections [1][2][3][4][5]. In addition to the increased occurrence of Candida species infections, resistance against used antifungal agents is increasing.…”

Structure of the bacteriophage T4 long tail fiber receptor-binding tip

“…gene product 37 | host cell attachment | octahedral coordination | viral fibers | X-ray crystallography B acteriophages are exploited in an emergent array of applications including the typing of bacteria (1), peptide display (2), and experimental phage therapy (3)(4)(5). Bacteriophages have also been extensively studied as model systems for fundamental processes such as viral infection and replication, gene transfer, protein folding, and assembly.…”

Enzybiotics and their Potential Applications in Medicine

“…In view of this, it appears that recombinant enzymes acting on the cell wall from outside the cell (e.g., those used for therapeutic purposes) should be referred to as lysins rather than endolysins. Still another name proposed to designate a lysin is " virolysin, " which is intended to point out the viral origin of these enzymes (Parisien et al 2008 ). However, this name has not gained popularity and is used very rarely.…”