TY - JOUR
T1 - Phages, anti-CRISPR proteins, and drug-resistant bacteria
T2 - What do we know about this triad?
AU - Ceballos-Garzon, Andres
AU - Muñoz, Angela B.
AU - Plata, Juan D.
AU - Sanchez-Quitian, Zilpa A.
AU - Ramos-Vivas, Jose
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Phages are viruses that infect bacteria, relying on their genetic machinery to replicate. To survive the constant attack of phages, bacteria have developed diverse defense strategies to act against them. Nevertheless, phages rapidly co-evolve to overcome these barriers, resulting in a constant, and often surprising, molecular arms race. Thus, some phages have evolved protein inhibitors known as anti-CRISPRs (∼50-150 amino acids), which antagonize the bacterial CRISPR-Cas immune response. To date, around 45 anti-CRISPRs proteins with different mechanisms and structures have been discovered against the CRISPR-Cas type I and type II present in important animal and human pathogens such as Escherichia, Morganella, Klebsiella, Enterococcus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, and Salmonella. Considering the alarming growth of antibiotic resistance, phage therapy, either alone or in combination with antibiotics, appears to be a promising alternative for the treatment of many bacterial infections. In this review, we illustrated the biological and clinical aspects of using phage therapy; furthermore, the CRISPR-Cas mechanism, and the interesting activity of anti-CRISPR proteins as a possible weapon to combat bacteria.
AB - Phages are viruses that infect bacteria, relying on their genetic machinery to replicate. To survive the constant attack of phages, bacteria have developed diverse defense strategies to act against them. Nevertheless, phages rapidly co-evolve to overcome these barriers, resulting in a constant, and often surprising, molecular arms race. Thus, some phages have evolved protein inhibitors known as anti-CRISPRs (∼50-150 amino acids), which antagonize the bacterial CRISPR-Cas immune response. To date, around 45 anti-CRISPRs proteins with different mechanisms and structures have been discovered against the CRISPR-Cas type I and type II present in important animal and human pathogens such as Escherichia, Morganella, Klebsiella, Enterococcus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, and Salmonella. Considering the alarming growth of antibiotic resistance, phage therapy, either alone or in combination with antibiotics, appears to be a promising alternative for the treatment of many bacterial infections. In this review, we illustrated the biological and clinical aspects of using phage therapy; furthermore, the CRISPR-Cas mechanism, and the interesting activity of anti-CRISPR proteins as a possible weapon to combat bacteria.
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U2 - 10.1093/femspd/ftac039
DO - 10.1093/femspd/ftac039
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36255384
AN - SCOPUS:85141933833
SN - 2049-632X
VL - 80
JO - Pathogens and Disease
JF - Pathogens and Disease
IS - 1
M1 - ftac039
ER -