Phages and their lysins: Toolkits in the battle against foodborne pathogens in the postantibiotic era

Abstract

Worldwide, foods waste caused by putrefactive organisms and diseases caused by foodborne pathogens persist as public health problems even with a plethora of modern antimicrobials. Our over reliance on antimicrobials use in agriculture, medicine, and other fields will lead to a postantibiotic era where bacterial genotypic resistance, phenotypic adaptation, and other bacterial evolutionary strategies cause antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This AMR is evidenced by the emergence of multiple drug‐resistant (MDR) bacteria and pan‐resistant (PDR) bacteria, which produces cross‐contamination in multiple fields and poses a more serious threat to food safety. A “red queen premise” surmises that the coevolution of phages and bacteria results in an evolutionary arms race that compels phages to adapt and survive bacterial antiphage strategies. Phages and their lysins are therefore useful toolkits in the design of novel antimicrobials in food protection and foodborne pathogens control, and the modality of using phages as a targeted vector against foodborne pathogens is gaining momentum based on many encouraging research outcomes. In this review, we discuss the rationale of using phages and their lysins as weapons against spoilage organisms and foodborne pathogens, and outline the targeted conquest or dodge mechanism of phages and the development of novel phage prospects. We also highlight the implementation of phages and their lysins to control foodborne pathogens in a farm–table–hospital domain in the postantibiotic era.

Bacterial Biofilm Destruction: A Focused Review On The Recent Use of Phage-Based Strategies With Other Antibiofilm Agents

“…The application of endolysins against Gram-negative pathogens is impaired by the presence of a protecting outer membrane layer, however, the combination with membrane permeabilizers turned out to significantly improve lysin efficiency. 74,75 More recently, genetic engineering has allowed the design of lysin/cationic peptide combination called Artilysins; the lysin/bacteriocin version to obtain Lysocins, and the lysin/phage receptor binding proteins to generate Innolysins, as an anticipated promising strategy. 2 In terms of antibiofilm activity, phage lytic proteins offer interesting properties.…”

An Overview of the Public Health Challenges in Diagnosing and Controlling Human Foodborne Pathogens

“…Several studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of phages in eradicating foodborne pathogens [70][71][72][73]. It is of great importance to note that since phage research has grown significantly in the last couple of decades, we also discuss in this review the most recent discoveries on how effectively phages can be used against the principal foodrelated microorganisms and how these viruses may impact the method of microbiological management employed in food production.…”

Identification of Three Campylobacter Lysins and Enhancement of Their Anti-Escherichia coli Efficacy Using Colicin-Based Translocation and Receptor-Binding Domain Fusion

“…However, the development of veterinary-based lysin products may be faster since the restrictions outlined for animal use allow lysins to be used for the treatment of several diseases ( 88 , 89 ). Moreover, it is worth mentioning that lysins have been shown to be effective in eliminating biofilms formed by pathogens on different surfaces in the food industry ( 90 ), and various lysins have been demonstrated to be good candidates for use in food against bacteria ( 91 ). Although there are many positive uses of lysins in ordinary clinical therapy, animal treatment and food safety, lysin usage is still in its infancy.…”