Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2012 Jan 10:9:9.
doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-9-9.

Bacteriophages and their implications on future biotechnology: a review

Irshad Ul Haq  1 , Waqas Nasir Chaudhry, Maha Nadeem Akhtar, Saadia Andleeb, Ishtiaq Qadri
Affiliations
Review

Bacteriophages and their implications on future biotechnology: a review

Irshad Ul Haq et al. Virol J. .

Abstract

Recently it has been recognized that bacteriophages, the natural predators of bacteria can be used efficiently in modern biotechnology. They have been proposed as alternatives to antibiotics for many antibiotic resistant bacterial strains. Phages can be used as biocontrol agents in agriculture and petroleum industry. Moreover phages are used as vehicles for vaccines both DNA and protein, for the detection of pathogenic bacterial strain, as display system for many proteins and antibodies. Bacteriophages are diverse group of viruses which are easily manipulated and therefore they have potential uses in biotechnology, research, and therapeutics. The aim of this review article is to enable the wide range of researchers, scientists, and biotechnologist who are putting phages into practice, to accelerate the progress and development in the field of biotechnology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Some methods that are used to fuse foreign peptides to the surface of phage. Foreign peptides can be displayed on more than one phage coat proteins. Smaller foreign peptides are displayed in more numbers but it also depends on the type of antigen, coat protein and the phage. (a) The gene for a foreign peptide is directly fused to the minor coat-protein gene. The foreign antigen is displayed by all minor coat proteins. (b) Foreign peptide gene is attached to major coat protein gene while another copy of the gene (major coat proteins) is also present. Foreign protein is displayed on some major coat proteins. (c) Cells containing a phagemid (plasmid that have both plasmid and bacteriophage origin of replication) are infected with unchanged helper phage which then expresses the foreign peptide or protein. Foreign antigens are displayed by some coat proteins.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Some examples of methods for vaccines delivery via phages. (a) Host could be inoculated for phage-delivered protein vaccine. (b) As in (a) host is inoculated for phage-delivered protein vaccine but the protective antigen is expressed as prokaryotic coat protein fusion. (c) Inoculation of host for phage mediated DNA vaccination. (d) Host can be inoculated for hybrid phage vaccination, where in one construct protein and DNA vaccines are delivered through phage. (e) Host inoculation for standard DNA vaccination.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Clark JR, March JB. Bacteriophages and biotechnology: vaccines, gene therapy and antibacterials. Trends Biotechnol. 2006;24(5):212–218. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2006.03.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ackerman HW. Tailed bacteriophages: the Caudovirales. Adv Virus Res. 1998;51:135–201. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Inal JM. Phage therapy: a reappraisal of bacteriophages as antibiotics. Arch Immunol Ther Exp. 2003;51(4):237–244. - PubMed
    1. Summers WC. Felix d'Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology. Yale University Press; 1999. Bacteriophage discovered; pp. 47–59.
    1. Hermoso JA, Garcia JL, Garcia P. Taking aim on bacterial pathogens: from phage therapy to enzybiotics. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2007;10(5):461–472. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2007.08.002. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources