“Virus’s bug-busting tactics inspire new approach to tackling infections”

“Fresh insights into how viruses infect bacteria could provide the basis for a new way to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

New research published this week in PNAS reveals how T7 phage – a virus that targets and infects most strains of E. coli – deploys two key proteins that enable it to take hold of bacteria’s essential cellular machinery.

Significantly, the findings reveal that the previously unexplored protein Gp5.7 is responsible for hijacking forms of a crucial enzyme in E. colithat allow the bacterium to grow and develop resilience in response to changes in its environment.

This new insight into how a phage is optimised to kill bacteria could be used as the foundation for engineering synthetic viruses, capable of combatting many different kinds of drug-resistant infections.”

Source: Imperial College London