Potential Applications of Thermophilic Bacteriophages in One Health

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 9; p. 8222
• Main Authors: Liu, Hong, Kheirvari, Milad, Tumban, Ebenezer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 04.05.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Amidase; Animal health; Animals; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antibodies; Bacteria; Bacterial infections; bacteriophages; Bacteriophages - metabolism; Bioavailability; Biotechnology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19 vaccines; DNA polymerase; DNA-directed DNA polymerase; Drinking water; Drug resistance; Drug resistance in microorganisms; E coli; endolysins; Endopeptidases - metabolism; Environmental health; Food; Food Contamination; Food processing; Food Safety; Hepatitis; Humans; Infections; Ligands; lytic enzymes; Molecular biology; One Health; Pasteurization; Pathogens; Peptides; Phages; Proteins; Quality assessment; Refrigeration; Review; Safety and security measures; Salmonella; Supply chains; Technology application; thermophilic bacteriophages; Vaccines; Vaccines - metabolism; Veterinary medicine; Virus-like particles; Viruses; Water quality; Zoonoses; food safety; lytic enzymes; virus-like particles; thermophilic bacteriophages; vaccines; bacteriophages; endolysins; veterinary medicine; One Health
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24098222

Bacteriophages have a wide range of applications such as combating antibiotic resistance, preventing food contamination for food safety, and as biomarkers to indirectly assess the quality of water. Additionally, bacteriophage components (endolysins and coat proteins) have a lot of applications in food processing, vaccine design, and the delivery of cargo to the body. Therefore, bacteriophages/components have a multitude of applications in human, plant/veterinary, and environmental health (One Health). Despite their versatility, bacteriophage/component use is mostly limited to temperatures within 4-40 °C. This limits their applications (e.g., in food processing conditions, pasteurization, and vaccine design). Advances in thermophilic bacteriophage research have uncovered novel thermophilic endolysins (e.g., ΦGVE2 amidase and MMPphg) that can be used in food processing and in veterinary medicine. The endolysins are thermostable at temperatures > 65 °C and have broad antimicrobial activities. In addition to thermophilic endolysins, enzymes (DNA polymerase and ligases) derived from thermophages have different applications in molecular biology/biotechnology: to generate DNA libraries and develop diagnostics for human and animal pathogens. Furthermore, coat proteins from thermophages are being explored to develop virus-like particle platforms with versatile applications in human and animal health. Overall, bacteriophages, especially those that are thermophilic, have a plethora of applications in One Health.