Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy is widespread-extending to -but varies by phage, host strain, and antibiotic pairing.

Unlabelled: Bacteriophages (phages) are bacterial-specific viruses that can be used alone or with antibiotics to reduce bacterial load. Most phages are unsuitable for therapy because they are "temperate" and can integrate into the host genome, forming a lysogen that is protected from subsequent phage infections. However, integrated phages can be awakened by stressors such as antibiotics.

Phage Therapy in the Management of Urinary Tract Infections: A Comprehensive Systematic Review.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a problem worldwide, affecting almost half a billion people each year. Increasing antibiotic resistance and limited therapeutic options have led to the exploration of alternative therapies for UTIs, including bacteriophage (phage) therapy. This systematic review aims at evaluating the efficacy of phage therapy in treating UTIs.

Correction: Sutcliffe et al. Common Oral Medications Lead to Prophage Induction in Bacterial Isolates from the Human Gut. 2021, , 455.

In the original publication [...

Infusion Therapy in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain.

Purpose Of Review: Neuropathic pain is a prevalent and burdensome condition. While oral medical therapies are the first-line treatment for refractory neuropathic pain, in some cases, infusion therapy may be employed. This article is a systematic review of recent publications regarding epidemiologic, pathophysiologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic advancements in the treatment of neuropathic pain using intravenous infusion therapy.

Bacterial membrane vesicles and phages in blood after consumption of JB-1.

Gut microbiota have myriad roles in host physiology, development, and immunity. Though confined to the intestinal lumen by the epithelia, microbes influence distal systems via poorly characterized mechanisms. Recent work has considered the role of extracellular vesicles in interspecies communication, but whether they are involved in systemic microbe-host interaction is unclear.

Efficacy of Bacteriophage S1 Delivered and Released by Alginate Beads in a Chicken Model of Infection.

Modern bacteriophage encapsulation methods based on polymers such as alginate have been developed recently for their use in phage therapy for veterinary purposes. In birds, it has been proven that using this delivery system allows the release of the bacteriophage in the small intestine, the site of infection by spp. This work designed an approach for phage therapy using encapsulation by ionotropic gelation of the lytic bacteriophage S1 for   in 2% / alginate beads using 2% / calcium chloride as crosslinking agent.

Temperate phage-antibiotic synergy eradicates bacteria through depletion of lysogens.

There is renewed interest in bacterial viruses (phages) as alternatives to antibiotics. All phage treatments to date have used virulent phages rather than temperate ones, as these can integrate into the genome of the bacterial host and lie dormant. However, temperate phages are abundant and easier to isolate.

Common Oral Medications Lead to Prophage Induction in Bacterial Isolates from the Human Gut.

Many bacteria carry bacteriophages (bacterial viruses) integrated in their genomes in the form of prophages, which replicate passively alongside their bacterial host. Environmental conditions can lead to prophage induction; the switching from prophage replication to lytic replication, that results in new bacteriophage progeny and the lysis of the bacterial host. Despite their abundance in the gut, little is known about what could be inducing these prophages.

Does over a century of aerobic phage work provide a solid framework for the study of phages in the gut?

Bacterial viruses (bacteriophages, phages) of the gut have increasingly become a focus in microbiome studies, with an understanding that they are likely key players in health and disease. However, characterization of the virome remains largely based on bioinformatic approaches, with the impact of these viromes inferred based on a century of knowledge from aerobic phage work. Studying the phages infecting anaerobes is difficult, as they are often technically demanding to isolate and propagate.

In the Anti-CRISPR Jungle, Only the Weak Thrive?

If, as we all know, only the strong survive, why do bacterial viruses (phages) encode weak suppressors of a bacterial immune system? In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Chevallereau et al. (2019) expertly demonstrate how, in the context of competition with other phages, weakness can be a strength.

A contemporary look at allergic conjunctivitis.

Allergic eye disease is common, yet often overlooked in North America. In the U.S.

Widespread anti-CRISPR proteins in virulent bacteriophages inhibit a range of Cas9 proteins.

CRISPR-Cas systems are bacterial anti-viral systems, and bacterial viruses (bacteriophages, phages) can carry anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins to evade that immunity. Acrs can also fine-tune the activity of CRISPR-based genome-editing tools. While Acrs are prevalent in phages capable of lying dormant in a CRISPR-carrying host, their orthologs have been observed only infrequently in virulent phages.

An anti-CRISPR from a virulent streptococcal phage inhibits Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9.

The CRISPR-Cas system owes its utility as a genome-editing tool to its origin as a prokaryotic immune system. The first demonstration of its activity against bacterial viruses (phages) is also the first record of phages evading that immunity . This evasion can be due to point mutations , large-scale deletions , DNA modifications , or phage-encoded proteins that interfere with the CRISPR-Cas system, known as anti-CRISPRs (Acrs) .

Phagebook: The Social Network.

Much like social networks are used to connect with friends or relatives, bacteria communicate with relatives through quorum sensing. Viruses, though, were thought to be asocial-until now. Erez et al.

Detecting natural adaptation of the Streptococcus thermophilus CRISPR-Cas systems in research and classroom settings.

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas systems have been adapted into a powerful genome-editing tool. The basis for the flexibility of the tool lies in the adaptive nature of CRISPR-Cas as a bacterial immune system. Here, we describe a protocol to experimentally demonstrate the adaptive nature of this bacterial immune system by challenging the model organism for the study of CRISPR adaptation, Streptococcus thermophilus, with phages in order to detect natural CRISPR immunization.

Functional and Evolutionary Characterization of a Gene Transfer Agent's Multilocus "Genome".

Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are phage-like particles that can package and transfer a random piece of the producing cell's genome, but are unable to transfer all the genes required for their own production. As such, GTAs represent an evolutionary conundrum: are they selfish genetic elements propagating through an unknown mechanism, defective viruses, or viral structures "repurposed" by cells for gene exchange, as their name implies? In Rhodobacter capsulatus, production of the R. capsulatus GTA (RcGTA) particles is associated with a cluster of genes resembling a small prophage.

Applications of CRISPR-Cas in its natural habitat.

Key components of CRISPR-Cas systems have been adapted into a powerful genome-editing tool that has caught the headlines and the attention of the public. Canonically, a customized RNA serves to guide an endonuclease (e.g.

Programming Native CRISPR Arrays for the Generation of Targeted Immunity.

Unlabelled: The adaptive immune system of prokaryotes, called CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated genes), results in specific cleavage of invading nucleic acid sequences recognized by the cell's "memory" of past encounters. Here, we exploited the properties of native CRISPR-Cas systems to program the natural "memorization" process, efficiently generating immunity not only to a bacteriophage or plasmid but to any specifically chosen DNA sequence.

Importance: CRISPR-Cas systems have entered the public consciousness as genome editing tools due to their readily programmable nature.

Adaptation in bacterial CRISPR-Cas immunity can be driven by defective phages.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) and their associated cas genes serve as a prokaryotic 'adaptive' immune system, protecting against foreign DNA elements such as bacteriophages. CRISPR-Cas systems function by incorporating short DNA 'spacers', homologous to invading DNA sequences, into a CRISPR array (adaptation). The array is then transcribed and matured into RNA molecules (maturation) that target homologous DNA for cleavage (interference).

DNA packaging bias and differential expression of gene transfer agent genes within a population during production and release of the Rhodobacter capsulatus gene transfer agent, RcGTA.

Rhodobacter capsulatus produces a gene transfer agent (GTA) called RcGTA. RcGTA is a phage-like particle that packages R. capsulatus DNA and transfers it to other R.

Characterization of a newly discovered Mu-like bacteriophage, RcapMu, in Rhodobacter capsulatus strain SB1003.

The α-proteobacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus is a model organism for the study of bacterial photosynthesis and the bacteriophage-like gene transfer agent. Characterization of phages that infect Rhodobacter is extremely rare, and scarce for the α-proteobacteria in general. Here, we describe the discovery of the only functional Mu-like transposing phage to have been identified in the α-proteobacteria, RcapMu, resident in the genome-sequenced R.

Environmental, genomic and taxonomic perspectives on methanotrophic Verrucomicrobia.

Aerobic methanotrophic bacteria are capable of utilizing methane as their sole energy source. They are commonly found at the oxic/anoxic interfaces of environments such as wetlands, aquatic sediments, and landfills, where they feed on methane produced in anoxic zones of these environments. Until recently, all known species of aerobic methanotrophs belonged to the phylum Proteobacteria, in the classes Gammaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria.