Sex pilus specific bateriophage to drive bacterial population towards antibiotic sensitivity

Colom, Joan; Batista, Diego; Baig, Abiyad; Tang, Ying; Liu, Siyang; Yuan, Fangzhong; Belkhiri, Aoutif; Marcelino, Lucas; Barbosa, Fernanda; Rubio, Marcela; Atterbury, Robert; Berchieri, Angelo; Onuigbo, Ebele; Barrow, Paul

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now a major global problem largely resulting from the overuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock. In some AMR bacteria, resistance is encoded by conjugative plasmids expressing sex-pili that can readily spread resistance through bacterial populations. The aim of this study was to use sex pilus-specific (SPS) phage to reduce the carriage of AMR plasmids. Here, we demonstrate that SPS phage can kill AMR Escherichia coli and select for AMR plasmid loss in vitro. For the first time, we also demonstrate that SPS phage can both prevent the spread of AMR Salmonella Enteritidis infection in chickens and shift the bacterial population towards antibiotic sensitivity.

Citation

Colom, J., Batista, D., Baig, A., Tang, Y., Liu, S., Yuan, F., Belkhiri, A., Marcelino, L., Barbosa, F., Rubio, M., Atterbury, R., Berchieri, A., Onuigbo, E., & Barrow, P. (2019). Sex pilus specific bateriophage to drive bacterial population towards antibiotic sensitivity. Scientific Reports, 9, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48483-9

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Publication Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Deposit Date: Aug 2, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2019
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Article Number: 12616
• Pages: 1-11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48483-9
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2379593
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-48483-9
• Additional Information: Received: 20 July 2018; Accepted: 24 July 2019; First Online: 30 August 2019; : The authors declare no competing interests.
• Contract Date: Sep 2, 2019