The Diversity of Bacterial Lifestyles Hampers Bacteriophage Tenacity
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viruses Review The Diversity of Bacterial Lifestyles Hampers Bacteriophage Tenacity Marta Lourenço 1,2, Luisa De Sordi 1 and Laurent Debarbieux 1,* ID 1 Department of Microbiology, Institut Pasteur, F-75015 Paris, France; [email protected] (M.L.); [email protected] (L.D.S.) 2 Collège Doctoral, Sorbonne Université, F-75005 Paris, France * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 18 May 2018; Accepted: 11 June 2018; Published: 15 June 2018 Abstract: Phage therapy is based on a simple concept: the use of a virus (bacteriophage) that is capable of killing specific pathogenic bacteria to treat bacterial infections. Since the pioneering work of Félix d’Herelle, bacteriophages (phages) isolated in vitro have been shown to be of therapeutic value. Over decades of study, a large number of rather complex mechanisms that are used by phages to hijack bacterial resources and to produce their progeny have been deciphered. While these mechanisms have been identified and have been studied under optimal conditions in vitro, much less is known about the requirements for successful viral infections in relevant natural conditions. This is particularly true in the context of phage therapy. Here, we highlight the parameters affecting phage replication in both in vitro and in vivo environments, focusing, in particular, on the mammalian digestive tract. We propose avenues for increasing the knowledge-guided implementation of phages as therapeutic tools. Keywords: virus–host interactions; bacteriophage efficacy; gastrointestinal tract; phage therapy 1. Introduction With the alarming worldwide increase in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, phage therapy—the use of phages to target pathogenic bacteria [1]—has recently returned to the spotlight in the USA and Europe, although it had never fallen out of favour in countries such as Georgia [2]. The three main characteristics of phages that make phage therapy an appealing strategy are (i) the self-replication of phages, leading to a local increase in their concentration; (ii) the lack of broad off-target effects due to the narrow host specificity of phages and (iii) genomic flexibility making it possible to rapidly develop optimised variants. The recent publication of a successful compassionate clinical case treatment with phages has highlighted the potential value of phage therapy in the context of human health [3,4]. However, in modern phase II clinical trials, the efficacy of phage therapy was highly variable in a small number of patients with chronic otitis, and phage therapy was ineffective in a larger trial with children with diarrhoea [5,6]. This lack of success may partly reflect the paucity of data relating to the translation from in vitro to clinical settings [7]. We must, therefore, address the challenge of identifying the parameters characterising effective phage treatments. For example, in studies of several experimental models investigating the use of phages to target bacteria residing in the digestive tract of animals, treatment efficacy has been reported to range from complete inefficacy to highly successful [8–12]. These findings contrast strongly with in vitro observations in which most, if not all, phages are highly efficient at infecting their host. These discrepancies may be explained by the influence of the bacterial lifestyle on phage infection, as discussed below. Viruses 2018, 10, 327; doi:10.3390/v10060327 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses Viruses 20182018,, 1010,, 327x 2 of 1110 2. Bacteria Provide Essential Support for the Parasitic Lifestyle of Phages 2. 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