9 research outputs found
Metabolomics of reef benthic interactions reveals a bioactive lipid involved in coral defence
Three-Dimensional Molecular Cartography of the Caribbean Reef-Building Coral<i> Orbicella faveolata</i>
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Genomic and ecological attributes of marine bacteriophages encoding bacterial virulence genes
Background Bacteriophages encode genes that modify bacterial functions during infection. The acquisition of phage-encoded virulence genes is a major mechanism for the rise of bacterial pathogens. In coral reefs, high bacterial density and lysogeny has been proposed to exacerbate reef decline through the transfer of phage-encoded virulence genes. However, the functions and distribution of these genes in phage virions on the reef remain unknown. Results Here, over 28,000 assembled viral genomes from the free viral community in Atlantic and Pacific Ocean coral reefs were queried against a curated database of virulence genes. The diversity of virulence genes encoded in the viral genomes was tested for relationships with host taxonomy and bacterial density in the environment. These analyses showed that bacterial density predicted the profile of virulence genes encoded by phages. The Shannon diversity of virulence-encoding phages was negatively related with bacterial density, leading to dominance of fewer genes at high bacterial abundances. A statistical learning analysis showed that reefs with high microbial density were enriched in viruses encoding genes enabling bacterial recognition and invasion of metazoan epithelium. Over 60% of phages could not have their hosts identified due to limitations of host prediction tools; for those which hosts were identified, host taxonomy was not an indicator of the presence of virulence genes. Conclusions This study described bacterial virulence factors encoded in the genomes of bacteriophages at the community level. The results showed that the increase in microbial densities that occurs during coral reef degradation is associated with a change in the genomic repertoire of bacteriophages, specifically in the diversity and distribution of bacterial virulence genes. This suggests that phages are implicated in the rise of pathogens in disturbed marine ecosystems
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Erratum for Schooley et al., "Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection".
Volume 61, no. 10, e00954-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00954-17. Materials and Methods, 2nd paragraph, 2nd sentence: “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy71, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9)” should read “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9), except for one phage (AB-Navy71, also known as phage vB_Ab-M-G7, DSM strain no. 25639), which was purchased from Liebniz Institute DSMZ (Germany).
Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection
Widespread antibiotic use in clinical medicine and the livestock industry has contributed to the global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens, including Acinetobacter baumannii We report on a method used to produce a personalized bacteriophage-based therapeutic treatment for a 68-year-old diabetic patient with necrotizing pancreatitis complicated by an MDR A. baumannii infection. Despite multiple antibiotic courses and efforts at percutaneous drainage of a pancreatic pseudocyst, the patient deteriorated over a 4-month period. In the absence of effective antibiotics, two laboratories identified nine different bacteriophages with lytic activity for an A. baumannii isolate from the patient. Administration of these bacteriophages intravenously and percutaneously into the abscess cavities was associated with reversal of the patient's downward clinical trajectory, clearance of the A. baumannii infection, and a return to health. The outcome of this case suggests that the methods described here for the production of bacteriophage therapeutics could be applied to similar cases and that more concerted efforts to investigate the use of therapeutic bacteriophages for MDR bacterial infections are warranted
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Erratum for Schooley et al., “Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection”
Volume 61, no. 10, e00954-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00954-17. Materials and Methods, 2nd paragraph, 2nd sentence: “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy71, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9)” should read “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9), except for one phage (AB-Navy71, also known as phage vB_Ab-M-G7, DSM strain no. 25639), which was purchased from Liebniz Institute DSMZ (Germany).
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Development and use of personalized bacteriophage-based therapeutic cocktails to treat a patient with a disseminated resistant <i>Acinetobacter baumannii</i> infection
Volume 61, no. 10, e00954-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00954-17. Materials and Methods, 2nd paragraph, 2nd sentence: “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy71, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9)” should read “Phages provided by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the Naval Medical Research Center (AB-Navy1, AB-Navy4, AB-Navy97, and AbTP31) were isolated from various environmental samples by using routine isolation techniques, as previously described (9), except for one phage (AB-Navy71, also known as phage vB_Ab-M-G7, DSM strain no. 25639), which was purchased from Liebniz Institute DSMZ (Germany).