Activity of E. coli phages have implications for phage therapy.
Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2004 NewsRX
2004 SEP 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The in vitro and in vivo
bacteriolytic activities of Escherichia coli phages have implications for phage therapy.
"Four T4-like coliphages with broad host ranges for diarrhea-associated
Escherichia coli serotypes were isolated from stool specimens from pediatric
diarrhea patients and from environmental water samples. All four phages showed
a highly efficient gastrointestinal passage in adult mice when added to
drinking water. Viable phages were recovered from the feces in a dose-dependent
way. The minimal oral dose for consistent fecal recovery was as low as
10[superscript]3 PFU of phage per mL of drinking water," investigators in
"In conventional mice, the orally applied phage remained restricted to
the gut lumen, and as expected for a noninvasive phage, no histopathological
changes of the gut mucosa were detected in the phage-exposed animals,"
said Sandra Chibani-Chennoufi at Nestec Ltd. in
"In contrast, the normal E. coli gut flora of conventional mice was
only minimally affected by oral phage application despite the fact that in
vitro the majority of the murine intestinal E. coli colonies were susceptible
to the given phage cocktail," reported the researchers. "Apparently,
the resident E. coli gut flora is physically or physiologically protected
against phage infection."
Chibani-Chennoufi and her coauthors published their study in Antimicrobial
Agents and Chemotherapy (In vitro and in vivo bacteriolytic activities of
Escherichia coli phages: Implications for phage
therapy. Antimicrob Agents Chemother,
2004;48(7):2558-2569).
For additional information, contact Harald Brussow, Nestle Research Center,
Nestec Ltd., Vers-chez-les-Blanc, CH-1000 Lausanne 26,
The publisher of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy can be
contacted at: American Society for Microbiology, 1752 N Street NW,
The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of
Gastroenterology Vaccine, Vaccine Development, Immunology, Immunotherapy, and
Gastroenterology.
This article was prepared by Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week editors
from staff and other reports. Copyright 2004, Obesity, Fitness & Wellness
Week via NewsRx.com & N
