Scientists Discover Viruses That Can Deactivate Dangerous Bacteria Section 1: The Growing Problem With Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Bacterial infections are getting more difficult to treat, particularly in hospitals and other healthcare settings. This is because many germs are becoming antibiotic-resistant. In 2017, nearly 30,000 multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections were reported among hospitalised patients in the United States. P. aeruginosa is a bacterium that can cause severe infections in the blood, lungs, and other regions of the body.

How Viruses Help Fight Bacteria
Scientists at Texas A&M AgriLife Research discovered a new technique to combat these hazardous bacteria. They are researching viruses called bacteriophages, or phages, which can infect and destroy bacteria. The researchers discovered that a phage named PP7 may connect to a component of the P. aeruginosa bacteria known as the pilus. The pilus acts like a spear, allowing bacteria to move around and disseminate antibiotic resistance to other bacteria.

When the PP7 phage connects to the pilus, the bacteria pushes it to the surface. However, in the process, the pilus flexes and snaps off. Without the pilus, P. aeruginosa bacteria are significantly less likely to infect their hosts and transmit antibiotic resistance.

"In our study of Pseudomonas, we were able to explain much more about what exactly is going on, including the force and speed of pilus detachment, and understand why and how this happens," said Lanying Zeng, Ph.D., a professor in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

A novel approach to treating bacterial infections.
The researchers anticipate that this discovery may lead to novel treatments for bacterial illnesses. Doctors could utilise phages to disarm germs by breaking off their pili, rather than immediately killing them. This could improve the patient's immune system's ability to fight the illness on its own or allow doctors to use fewer doses of antibiotics.

"If you simply kill the bacteria, you break the cells, and they're going to release toxic material from inside the cell into the host," said Junjie Zhang, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Texas A&M University. "Our strategy is to use a specific sort of phage to disarm the bacteria. By removing this appendage, we prevent them from exchanging drug-resistance genes or moving around.

Scientists at Texas A&M's Centre for Phage Technology are still researching how phages may be utilised to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They are looking for similar cases where phages reduce the pathogenicity of other types of pathogenic bacteria.

"We are taking a synergistic approach," Zhang explained. "We're attempting to figure out a universal mechanism for this sort of phage and how it affects different bacteria. That is the overarching goal of our collaborative effort: to address the problem of multidrug-resistant microorganisms."