An Overview of Diverse Strategies To Inactivate Enterobacteriaceae-Targeting Bacteriophages

Abstract

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and thus threaten industrial processes relying on the production executed by bacterial cells. Industries bear huge economic losses due to such recurring and resilient infections. Depending on the specificity of the process, there is a need for appropriate methods of bacteriophage inactivation, with an emphasis on being inexpensive and high efficiency. In this review, we summarize the reports on antiphagents, i.e., antibacteriophage agents on inactivation of bacteriophages. We focused on bacteriophages targeting the representatives of the Enterobacteriaceae family, as its representative, Escherichia coli, is most commonly used in the bio-industry. The review is divided into sections dealing with bacteriophage inactivation by physical factors, chemical factors, and nanotechnology-based solutions.

Keywords: Enterobacteriaceae; antiphagents; bacteriophages; bionanotechnology; inactivation.

FIG 1

Inactivation of MS2 bacteriophage (A), and Phi6 bacteriophage (B), at 72°C and 82°C for various relative humidity (RH) when viruses were suspended in culture media. Open faded symbols indicate virus inactivation beyond assay detection limits. The image was adapted from Rockey et al. based on the CC BY 4.0 License (53).

FIG 2

Inactivation of models of coronavirus by UV-C irradiation. In this figure, Phi6 bacteriophage and murine hepatitis virus (MHV) were exposed to various wavelengths of UV-C to cause 99.9% inactivation. As a control, the wavelengths used for krypton chloride (KrCl*) generation were used. Adapted from reference 96 with permission of the publisher (copyright 2021 American Chemical Society).

FIG 3

The inhibitory mechanism of chitosan antiviral agents on enveloped bacteriophage Phi6, using low molecular weight chitosan (LMW Ch), quaternary LMW Ch, and high molecular weight chitosan (HMW Ch). The image was adapted from Plohl et al. based on the CC BY 4.0 License (298).

FIG 4

Ozone effect on bacteriophage MS2 infectivity at three levels of relative humidity and three exposure times. The solid line represents the reference value without ozone. The dotted line represents the detection limit. Twenty percent RH values are represented by circles (●), 55% RH by squares (■), and 85% RH by triangles (▾). The image was adapted from Dubuis et al. based on the CC BY 4.0 License (299).

FIG 5

The inactivation of bacteriophage T4 by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) of plasma. The image was adapted from Guo et al. based on the CC BY 4.0 License (205).