Phage and Clostridium

Phage therapy has served as a good alternative to antibiotics by using bacteriophages to treat various infections caused by bacteria. Equipped with world-leading technology platforms and professional scientific staff, Creative Biolabs provides strong support in the development of phage-related therapies against Clostridium for our global clients.

Introduction of Clostridium

Clostridium is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria that can be found in water, soil, and the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. Till now, nearly 250 species of Clostridium have been identified, including common free-living bacteria and pathogens. Clostridium is the major commensal flora in the human gut that contributes to intestinal homeostasis, with Clostridium clusters XIVa and IV accounting for 10-40% of total bacteria. As chemo-organotrophic bacteria, Clostridium can ferment a variety of nutrients and thus exhibit great potential as probiotics. Although Clostridium species play a role in human gut health, most anaerobic infections are also caused by Clostridium. For example, Clostridium botulinum can cause botulism, Clostridium tetani cause tetanus when introduced into damaged tissue, Clostridium perfringens causes a wide range of symptoms, Clostridium sordellii can cause fatal infections after medical abortion.

In general, high-dose penicillin G is an effective treatment for Clostridial infections. What's more, Clostridia are also susceptible to tetracyclines, vancomycin, chloramphenicol, and carbapenems.

Fig.1 A photomicrograph of Clostridium botulinum bacteria.

Clostridium Phage

Phages are viruses that specialize in infecting bacteria. Lysogenic phages can integrate into the host's genome and be stably inherited by daughter cells. Lytic phages infect and cause host cell lysis, which is more common in therapeutic applications. Phage therapy regains more and more attention as drug-resistant bacteria continue to emerge. First isolated in the 1980s, phages that infect Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) have been used for Clostridium typing. Subsequently, phage therapy has been developed as an attractive therapeutic option against C. difficile infection. The phages will attach to receptors on C. difficile cells, and the phage DNA will then enter the cell and replicate, eventually lysing the bacterial cell. The release of phage virions would infect surrounding C. difficile cells until all C. difficile cells are killed. Compared with antibiotics, phages can locally amplify the delivery of treatments, and the way phages degrade biofilms is usually enzymatic.

Fig.2 Sequence C. difficile phage genome similarity and content. (Hargreaves & Clokie, 2014)

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 Clostridium, please do not hesitate to contact us for detailed information.

Reference:

1. Hargreaves, K.R.; Clokie, M.R.J. Clostridium difficile phages: still difficult? Frontiers in microbiology. 2014, 5: 184.