The effectiveness and role of phages in the disruption and inactivation of clinical P. aeruginosa biofilms.

Biofilms of P. aeruginosa are known to be resilient forms of survival of this opportunistic pathogen, both within the host and in natural or engineered environments. This study investigated the role of phages in the disruption and inactivation of clinical P. aeruginosa biofilms by previously isolated phages. All seven tested clinical strains formed biofilms in 56-80 h. Four previously isolated phages were effective in disrupting the formed biofilms when applied at multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10, where phage cocktails had equivalent or worse performance than single phages. Phage treatments reduced the biofilms' biomass (cells and extracellular matrix) by 57.6-88.5% after 72 h of incubation. Biofilm disruption led to the detachment of 74.5-80.4% of the cells. The phages were also able to kill the cells from the biofilms, reducing the living cell counts by approximately 40.5-62.0% after a single treatment. A fraction of 24-80% of these killed cells were also lysed due to phage action. This study showed that phages can have a relevant role in disrupting, inactivating, and destroying P. aeruginosa biofilms, which can be used in the development of treatment processes to complement or replace antibiotics and/or disinfectants.

Novel Bacteriophages Show Activity against Selected Australian Clinical Strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Multi-drug resistant (MDR) clinical strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the most prevalent bacteria in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and burn wounds and among the most common in immunocompromised hospital patients in Australia. There are currently no promising antibiotics in the pipeline being developed against these strains. Phage therapy, which uses viruses known as bacteriophages to infect and kill pathogenic bacteria, could be a possible alternative treatment. To this end, we isolated and characterised four novel phages against Australian clinical strains of P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis, from infected blood and joint aspirate in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Activated sludge was enriched for phages using the clinical strains, and four bacteriophages were isolated. The phages were able to cause lysis in a further three identified clinical isolates. Morphology showed that they were all tailed phages (of the order Caudovirales), two belonging to the family Myoviridae and the others assigned to the Podoviridae and Siphoviridae. Their genomes were sequenced to reveal a doubled stranded DNA topology with genome sizes ranging from 42 kb to 65 kb. In isolating and characterising these novel phages, we directed our efforts toward the development and use of these phages as candidates for phage therapy as an alternative strategy for the management or elimination of these pathogenic strains. Here we describe novel phage candidates for potential therapeutic treatment of MDR Australian clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.

Correction to: A metagenomic study of the rumen virome in domestic caprids.

Unfortunately, the original article was online published with error in the results section. The error is correction by this erratum.

A metagenomic study of the rumen virome in domestic caprids.

This project sought to investigate the domestic caprid rumen virome by developing a robust viral DNA isolation and enrichment protocol (utilizing membrane filtration, ultra-centrifugation, overnight PEG treatment and nuclease treatment) and using RSD-PCR and high throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques. 3.53% of the reads obtained were analogous to those of viruses denoting Siphoviridae, Myoviridae, Podoviridae, Mimiviridae, Microviridae, Poxviridae, Tectiviridae and Marseillevirus. Most of the sequenced reads from the rumen were similar to those of phages, which are critical in maintaining the rumen microbial populations under its carrying capacity. Though identified in the rumen, most of these viruses have been reported in other environments as well. Improvements in the viral DNA enrichment and isolation protocol are required to obtain data that are more representative of the rumen virome. The 102,130 unknown reads (92.31%) for the goat and 36,241 unknown reads (93.86%) for the sheep obtained may represent novel genomes that need further study.