Potential Application and Risks Associated With the Use of Predatory Bacteria as a Bio-control Agent Against Wound Infections.

摘要

Disease-causing microorganisms that have become resistant to drug therapy are an increasing cause of burn, wound, blast and bone infections, with many traditional antimicrobial agents becoming ineffective. Our main hypothesis is that predatory prokaryotes could serve as a novel therapeutic agent to control wound-related bacterial infections. In a previous study, we confirmed that predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Micavibrio aeruginosavorus are able to prey on a wide range of pathogens including bacteria isolated from Wounded Warriors. The aim of this proposal is to address key questions regarding the safety and efficacy of predatory bacteria and investigating predator prey interactions and resistance. Using enrichment culturing techniques we have verified that no genetically stable predation resistant phenotype developed in host cells following sequential predation. Our data also confirmed that the predators do not breach their host specificity and attack previously resistant bacteria. Cell toxicity assays, using human cell lines, demonstrated that predatory bacteria are significantly less toxic than the control. Finally, using a mouse wound model we determined that administering live predatory bacteria into exposed wounds did not cause any significant adverse effect to the animal or alter wound clinical score compared to a non-infected wound. However, at this point we have seen no statistically significant indication of enhance wound heeling in infected animals treated with the predators based on wound size, and weight change.