Phage and Campylobacter

Phage therapy has served as a good alternative to antibiotics by using bacteriophages to treat various infections caused by bacteria. With our well-established phage therapy platform, the experienced scientists here at Creative Biolabs is dedicated to providing strong support in the development of phage-related therapies against Campylobacter for our clients all over the world.

Introduction of Campylobacter

Campylobacter is a gram-negative genus capable of s- or comma-shaped. They grow better in a microaerophilic environment and at 37-42 °C. Till now, different types of Campylobacter have been identified, hypervariable regions are present in most Campylobacter genomes and vary widely among strains. Poultry is the main source of transmission of Campylobacter, other sources include water transmission, contaminated food, or direct contact with infected animals

Campylobacteriosis, a common foodborne illness in humans, is often caused by the thermophilic species. Campylobacteriosis is self-limiting and usually does not require treatment with antibacterial agents. The typical symptoms include fever, cramping, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. In addition, C. jejuni infection can cause bacteremia in immunocompromised individuals, and C. lari can cause recurrent diarrhea in children. In the United States, C. jejuni is considered one of the leading causes of bacterial foodborne illness.

Fig.1 Campylobacter jejuni.

Campylobacter Phages

Till now, a number of Campylobacter lytic phages belonging to the family Myoviridae have been isolated. There Campylobacter lytic phages are classified into three groups based on their genome size and morphology. Among them, group 1 phages (~320-425 kb) have not been described in detail or used for application. Group 2 phages (~175-183 kb) and group 3 phages (~131-135 kb) are a low burst size and are insensitive to cleavage by a variety of restriction endonucleases. The difference is that group II phages can infect both C. jejuni and C. coli, while group III phages generally infect more C. jejuni strains and show stronger lytic activity.

Bacteriophages that can be used for the control of pathogens must meet many requirements. For example, genes encoding toxins should not be present in phage genomes, phages should be stable over a wide range of pH and temperature, and phages should have a broad host range.

To fill the gaps in this field of phage therapy, Creative Biolabs offers the most advanced and comprehensive phage-related services today. We work to amplify your success in a highly collaborative manner. If you are interested in learning more about phages and Campylobacter, please do not hesitate to contact us for detailed information.

Reference:

1. Jäckel, C.; et al. Campylobacter phage isolation and characterization: what we have learned so far. Methods and protocols. 2019, 2(1): 18.