Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from the human skin microbiome that infect Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_3E18DFB614B8
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from the human skin microbiome that infect Staphylococcus epidermidis.
Journal
FEMS microbes
Author(s)
Valente L.G., Pitton M., Fürholz M., Oberhaensli S., Bruggmann R., Leib S.L., Jakob S.M., Resch G., Que Y.A., Cameron D.R.
ISSN
2633-6685 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
2633-6685
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2021
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
2
Pages
xtab003
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: epublish
Abstract
Phage therapy might be a useful approach for the treatment of nosocomial infections; however, only few lytic phages suitable for this application are available for the opportunistic pathogen, Staphylococcus epidermidis. In the current study, we developed an efficient method to isolate bacteriophages present within the human skin microbiome, by using niche-specific S. epidermidis as the host for phage propagation. Staphylococcus epidermidis was identified on the forehead of 92% of human subjects tested. These isolates were then used to propagate phages present in the same skin sample. Plaques were observable on bacterial lawns in 46% of the cases where S. epidermidis was isolated. A total of eight phage genomes were genetically characterized, including the previously described phage 456. A total of six phage sequences were unique, and spanned each of the major staphylococcal phage families; Siphoviridae (n = 3), Podoviridae (n = 1) and Myoviridae (n = 2). One of the myoviruses (vB_SepM_BE06) was identified on the skin of three different humans. Comparative analysis identified novel genes including a putative N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase gene. The host-range of each unique phage was characterized using a panel of diverse staphylococcal strains (n = 78). None of the newly isolated phages infected more than 52% of the S. epidermidis strains tested (n = 44), and non-S. epidermidis strains where rarely infected, highlighting the narrow host-range of the phages. One of the phages (vB_SepM_BE04) was capable of killing staphylococcal cells within biofilms formed on polyurethane catheters. Uncovering a richer diversity of available phages will likely improve our understanding of S. epidermidis-phage interactions, which will be important for future therapy.
Keywords
biofilms, coagulase-negative staphylococci, phage therapy
Pubmed
Open Access
Yes
Create date
26/06/2023 12:09
Last modification date
05/12/2023 8:06
Usage data