On the interactions between virulent bacteriophages and bacteria in the gut

Abstract

We recently described the targeting of O104:H4 Escherichia coli in mouse gut by several virulent bacteriophages, highlighting several issues relating to virus-host interactions, which we discuss further in this addendum to the original publication.

Keywords: bacteriophage infection; gut; permissivity; phage therapy; pseudolysogeny.

Figure 1. Changes in fecal bacteriophage concentration over time in mice colonized with the O104:H4 55989 E. coli strain. Four groups of 4 to 5 mice were colonized with E. coli 55989Str on day 0. Three days later, they received normal drinking water or drinking water containing one of the bacteriophages studied (closed circles, CLB_P1; squares, CLB_P2; triangles, CLB_P3) or a cocktail of the three bacteriophages (dashed line) at a concentration of 1 × 10⁵ pfu/ml each. On day 30, 20 individual colonies from feces were individually assessed for sensitivity to bacteriophages. The concentration of bacteria in the feces over the 30-d period was stable at about 1 × 10⁸ cfu/ml.