人体肠道噬菌体的研究与应用

肠道是人体内微生物定殖最丰富的部位。近年来,随着肠道菌群与人体健康疾病关联研究的蓬勃发展,肠道噬菌体也逐渐引起关注。然而,相关信息技术和实验技术发展的滞后在一定程度上限制了肠道噬菌体的科学研究进程。因此,本文首先回顾了近几年来肠道噬菌体研究领域所开发或采用的计算和实验方法,包括噬菌体的测序数据分析和噬菌体的分离纯化等。随后,本文就肠道噬菌体的分类、肠道内噬菌体与细菌的互作及肠道噬菌体在人体疾病干预中的应用展开了讨论。最后,本文展望了肠道噬菌体研究在数据和实体资源、信息和实验技术、与肠道菌群的互作、干预和治疗人体疾病各方面的一系列挑战和机遇。     

肠道噬菌体组与人体健康

噬菌体作为肠道微生物群落的重要组成部分,自生命初期即定植于肠道,在不同生命时期均以较为稳定的状态存在于人体。目前已知的肠道噬菌体主要是DNA噬菌体,且大多以前噬菌体形式存在。肠道噬菌体可通过多种机制优化其宿主微生物群的结构和组成,并以多种方式直接或间接影响人体的生理状态,其结构变化与多种疾病相关。利用测序方法,能够直接获取噬菌体组信息。本文基于噬菌体组的相关研究,综述了肠道噬菌体组与人体健康相关的研究进展,并对该领域的研究方法和发展方向做出展望。     

人体肠道病毒群的宏基因组学研究进展

随着高通量测序技术的发展,与人体共生的微生物群成为当今研究的热点。肠道微生物群是人体最庞杂且重要的微生态系统,与人体健康密切相关。其中,肠道菌群与疾病的研究是热点,但是人们对肠道病毒群的关注较少。该文对人体肠道病毒宏基因组学的研究进行综述,介绍病毒宏基因组学的基本研究内容,以及研究面临的瓶颈问题,阐述利用宏病毒组学探索健康人体肠道病毒群组成的特征、肠道病毒群与某些人类疾病相关性的研究进展。     

噬菌体微生态疗法与一体化健康:现状、挑战与机遇

在全球化和气候变化的背景下,病原细菌跨区域乃至全球性的广泛传播和危害加剧成为当前农业、环境和健康领域的重大共性难题,威胁土壤-植物-动物-环境一体化健康(One Health).滥用农药和抗生素所带来的生态环境和卫生安全风险成为国际共识,靶向阻控病原细菌的噬菌体疗法重新引起人们的重视.本文梳理了农业种植和养殖领域中应用噬菌体阻控病原细菌的现状;从改变病原细菌的生态与进化,调控土著微生物群落结构与功能以及激发病原细菌真核宿主的免疫系统等三方面总结噬菌体疗法的微生态机制;从病原细菌基因、生理和生态型的变异性,噬菌体与病原菌互作博弈的局限性,噬菌体生产应用的复杂性等方面论述噬菌体疗法发展应用的挑战;从一体化健康的需求、噬菌体疗法技术突破和多技术协同等方面探讨噬菌体疗法在一体化健康中的发展机遇.     

T7家族噬菌体感染宿主菌的起始——吸附和穿入

噬菌体和细菌互相作用的研究,是分子生物学的重要内容,在细菌感染性疾病的治疗等方面有重要的应用价值。噬菌体的感染从噬菌体吸附于宿主菌表面并将核酸注入开始。介绍了T7家族代表株T7噬菌体在吸附和穿入阶段需要的结构和具体过程,并简要综述了T7家族3个亚群的特征。     

噬菌体展示技术体内筛选的研究进展

噬菌体展示技术体内筛选是直接将噬菌体肽库注射到动物体内,筛选与活体内某些器官或组织有特异结合活性的小肽。噬菌体展示技术的体内筛选在血管靶向肽的筛选、肿瘤组织靶向肽的筛选、免疫反应的研究和相关疾病治疗、监测方面都有广泛的应用前景。     

噬菌体粉剂的制备及抗逆性与稳定性

【背景】细菌耐药已成为全球严重的公共卫生问题,养殖业是细菌耐药性产生的重要源头之一。我国正在全力推进"减抗、限抗、禁抗"战略。新型安全高效的抗生素替代品成为当前养殖业的重要需求。噬菌体因其能有效裂解细菌被认为是一个重要的突破口,但噬菌体作为活体微生物,在保存和使用时存在稳定性差、利用率低等问题。【目的】制备噬菌体粉剂,提高噬菌体的抗逆性和稳定性,为噬菌体在养殖业中的应用提供技术支持。【方法】选用大肠杆菌噬菌体BpEP4,采用嵌段式聚醚F-68包被噬菌体,然后负载于脱脂米糠制得噬菌体粉剂,双层琼脂平板法测定粉剂的噬菌体效价,研究其耐高温性能、pH稳定性与常温保存稳定性。【结果】噬菌体粉剂可以在100℃保持噬菌体的活性,pH耐受范围为2.0-12.0。常温下保存3个月噬菌体效价无明显降低。【结论】粉剂显著提高了噬菌体的抗逆性与稳定性,具有很好的应用价值和推广前景。     

粪菌移植技术中肠道噬菌体对疾病影响的研究进展

粪菌移植(fecal microbiota transplantation, FMT)是一种创新的方法,通过将健康供体的粪便微生物群移植到疾病患者体内,达到重建肠道微生态平衡的目的,为治疗疾病提供帮助。粪菌移植技术在复发性艰难拟梭菌感染(recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection, rCDI)的治疗中效果很好,并且其治疗潜力不仅局限于胃肠道疾病,而且在其他与微生物相关的疾病中被不断挖掘。探索FMT成功治疗疾病的影响因素,除了肠道细菌的恢复,还涉及肠道噬菌体的调节。肠道噬菌体是肠道微生物群的重要组成部分,在细菌的复杂动力学中发挥着重要作用,其转移可能与FMT的疗效有关。本综述回顾了肠道噬菌体的生物学特性和主要的生物信息学分析策略,总结了FMT中肠道噬菌体作用的临床研究,探讨了FMT中肠道噬菌体群落的变化和可能的作用机制,讨论了肠道噬菌体与FMT疗效的关系及其存在的安全性问题,既能提高对FMT中肠道噬菌体作用的理解,也能推动FMT的临床应用。     

噬菌体赋形剂的种类、配方及包被技术研究进展

噬菌体制剂的研究与应用受到医药领域、畜牧兽医领域及食品生产在内的各行业的重视。然而,噬菌体作为一种具有蛋白质外壳的活微生物,其在防治致病菌污染、感染及储存运输过程中,会遇到一些活性丧失、储存期短、液体状态运输不便等问题。因此,寻找合适的包被赋形剂,以减少噬菌体在使用、储存及运输过程中的活性损失,是噬菌体疗法亟须解决的问题。本文主要综述制备噬菌体制剂时使用的包被赋形剂种类、配方及包被技术等,及其对噬菌体抗逆性和储存稳定性的影响,并探讨了该领域最重要的研究成果,以期为固态噬菌体制剂寻找合适的包被赋形剂、配方和包被技术,为噬菌体的靶向治疗和控制释放奠定基础,有助于噬菌体治疗的更广泛的临床应用。     

抗生素诱导革兰阴性菌外膜囊泡产生及发挥生理作用的机制

外膜囊泡是革兰阴性菌分泌的一种球形纳米颗粒,由外膜及其所含成分组成,是细菌在外界压力条件下分泌的具有生理活性的特殊结构。外界压力如抗生素、缺氧等可触发细菌释放外膜囊泡,甚至在正常生长周期中,一些革兰阴性菌也会释放囊泡。外膜囊泡与细菌的多种生理过程相关,如应激反应、毒素传递、致病、细胞间通讯、免疫调节、基因水平转移及维持微生物群稳态等。在使用抗生素治疗过程中,尤其是当人体微生物群处于低剂量抗生素环境时,细菌会大量分泌外膜囊泡。在肠道中,外膜囊泡释放后会通过多种机制刺激肠道而引发多种炎症。本文综述了外膜囊泡的产生、结构及生理作用,提出抗生素治疗不但会破坏人体正常菌群而导致菌群失调,还会诱导细菌产生大量外膜囊泡而引发慢性炎症。噬菌体治疗不破坏正常菌群,特异性杀灭细菌时也不引起外膜囊泡的产生,因此开发使用噬菌体靶向治疗细菌感染将大大减少不良反应。     

Novel helper phage design: intergenic region affects the assembly of bacteriophages and the size of antibody libraries

Abstract Phagemid vectors for display of proteins/peptides on the surface of filamentous phage utilize a plasmid genome carrying the phage origin of replication, along with the gene fused to a fragment of gene III. Generation of phage particles displaying the fusion protein also requires superinfection of the host bacterium with a helper virus. We describe here the construction of a new gene III mutant of M13 KO7 bacteriophage and compare its ability to act as helper phage with two mutants derived from Fd tet (fKN 16 and fCA 55). Furthermore, we investigate their capability to act as helper phages in SAP selection, where non-infectious helper phage, expressing antibody fragments but not protein 3, can still infect by first reacting with a soluble antigen-protein 3 fusion protein. Gene III mutants were found to be non-infectious, and high titers of infective particles were obtained only when the helper phage was grown in cells harbouring a gene III-containing plasmid. An amplification of the phage titer of 10⁶× was achieved in M13-derived phages, when used for the selection of specific antibody fragments.     

Modified phages: novel antimicrobial agents to combat infectious diseases

Researchers increasingly believe that microbial, molecular and synthetic biology techniques along with genetic engineering will facilitate the treatment of persistent infectious diseases. However, such therapy has been plagued by the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in significant obstacles to treatment. Phage therapy is one promising alternative to antibiotics, especially now that recent modifications to ubiquitous phages have made them more controllable. Additionally, convincing in vitro and in vivo studies of genetically modified lytic phages and engineered non-lytic phages have confirmed the advantages of novel, specific bactericidal agents over antibiotics in some cases. There is still a need for a better understanding of phage therapy, however, before it can be adopted widely.     

Outside-host phage therapy as a biological control against environmental infectious diseases

Background

Environmentally growing pathogens present an increasing threat for human health, wildlife and food production. Treating the hosts with antibiotics or parasitic bacteriophages fail to eliminate diseases that grow also in the outside-host environment. However, bacteriophages could be utilized to suppress the pathogen population sizes in the outside-host environment in order to prevent disease outbreaks. Here, we introduce a novel epidemiological model to assess how the phage infections of the bacterial pathogens affect epidemiological dynamics of the environmentally growing pathogens. We assess whether the phage therapy in the outside-host environment could be utilized as a biological control method against these diseases. We also consider how phage-resistant competitors affect the outcome, a common problem in phage therapy. The models give predictions for the scenarios where the outside-host phage therapy will work and where it will fail to control the disease. Parameterization of the model is based on the fish columnaris disease that causes significant economic losses to aquaculture worldwide. However, the model is also suitable for other environmentally growing bacterial diseases.

Results

Transmission rates of the phage determine the success of infectious disease control, with high-transmission phage enabling the recovery of the host population that would in the absence of the phage go asymptotically extinct due to the disease. In the presence of outside-host bacterial competition between the pathogen and phage-resistant strain, the trade-off between the pathogen infectivity and the phage resistance determines phage therapy outcome from stable coexistence to local host extinction.

Conclusions

We propose that the success of phage therapy strongly depends on the underlying biology, such as the strength of trade-off between the pathogen infectivity and the phage-resistance, as well as on the rate that the phages infect the bacteria. Our results indicate that phage therapy can fail if there are phage-resistant bacteria and the trade-off between pathogen infectivity and phage resistance does not completely inhibit the pathogen infectivity. Also, the rate that the phages infect the bacteria should be sufficiently high for phage-therapy to succeed.

     

肠道菌群与心血管疾病关系研究进展

近年来,越来越多的研究表明肠道菌群在心血管疾病、2型糖尿病、肥胖等疾病的发病过程中起着主要作用,肠道菌群组成改变以及肠道菌群代谢物水平改变是导致疾病发生发展的重要因素,人们对肠道菌群与宿主之间的相互作用产生极大兴趣。本文系统总结了肠道菌群组成结构改变及肠道菌群代谢物改变与动脉粥样硬化、高血压、心肌梗死、心力衰竭等心血管疾病的相关性,阐明了肠道菌群可能是促进心血管疾病发病的原因之一。因此,通过改变饮食结构和使用抗生素、益生菌制剂及肠道菌群代谢物氧化三甲胺(TMAO)小分子抑制剂,来调控肠道菌群组成及代谢物水平有望作为心血管疾病治疗的新靶点。     

后生元缓解胃肠道疾病的研究进展及其潜在机制

胃肠道是全身代谢最活跃的器官之一，也是人体内最大的细菌库。人体胃肠道中含有丰富的微生物群，其与宿主健康存在着错综复杂的关系。肠道菌群处于一种动态平衡的状态，当这种平衡被打破时会引起便秘、腹泻、肠易激综合征、炎症性肠病和结直肠癌等胃肠道疾病的发生。近年来，关于后生元的研究越来越多，其对肠道屏障的保护作用与益生菌类似甚至效果更佳。本文重点介绍了当前后生元在动物实验和临床中改善胃肠道疾病的相关研究，探讨了后生元在胃肠道中的作用及其在增强上皮屏障、调节免疫系统、肠道菌群和神经系统4个方面的潜在作用机制。     

Generation of human monoclonal antibodies against <Emphasis Type="Italic">Propionibacterium acnes</Emphasis> by applying the phage display method to human peripheral blood mononuclear cells immunized in vitro

Propionibacterium acnes is a gram-positive, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium that is often detected in normal human skin flora. P. acnes has been associated with many diseases. In this study, we attempted to generate anti-P. acnes human monoclonal antibodies. A phage antibody library was first generated from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells immunized in vitro with P. acnes using the phage display method, and P. acnes-specific phage antibodies were obtained using solid phase panning. Antigen-specific variable region genes were then amplified and recombined into vectors expressing human IgG antibodies. The results indicated that the recombinant human IgG antibodies exhibited P. acnes-specific binding. This study demonstrates that the combined use of an in vitro immunization protocol and the phage display method enables the generation of human monoclonal antibodies against pathogenic bacteria and toxic antigens.     

Use of phages to control Campylobacter spp.

The use of phages to control pathogenic bacteria has been investigated since they were first discovered in the beginning of the 1900s. Over the last century we have slowly gained an in-depth understanding of phage biology including which phage properties are desirable when considering phage as biocontrol agents and which phage characteristics to potentially avoid. Campylobacter infections are amongst the most frequently encountered foodborne bacterial infections around the world. Handling and consumption of raw or undercooked poultry products have been determined to be the main route of transmission. The ability to use phages to target these bacteria has been studied for more than a decade and although we have made progress towards deciphering how best to use phages to control Campylobacter associated with poultry production, there is still much work to be done. This review outlines methods to improve the isolation of these elusive phages, as well as methods to identify desirable characteristics needed for a successful outcome. It also highlights the body of research undertaken so far and what criteria to consider when doing in-vivo studies, especially because some in-vitro studies have not been found to translate into to phage efficacy in-vivo.     

The diversity and host interactions of Propionibacterium acnes bacteriophages on human skin

The viral population, including bacteriophages, is an important component of the human microbiota, yet is poorly understood. We aim to determine whether bacteriophages modulate the composition of the bacterial populations, thus potentially playing a role in health or disease. We investigated the diversity and host interactions of the bacteriophages of Propionibacterium acnes, a major human skin commensal implicated in acne pathogenesis. By sequencing 48 P. acnes phages isolated from acne patients and healthy individuals and by analyzing the P. acnes phage populations in healthy skin metagenomes, we revealed that P. acnes phage populations in the skin microbial community are often dominated by one strain. We also found phage strains shared among both related and unrelated individuals, suggesting that a pool of common phages exists in the human population and that transmission of phages may occur between individuals. To better understand the bacterium–phage interactions in the skin microbiota, we determined the outcomes of 74 genetically defined Propionibacterium strains challenged by 15 sequenced phages. Depending on the Propionibacterium lineage, phage infection can result in lysis, pseudolysogeny, or resistance. In type II P. acnes strains, we found that encoding matching clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat spacers is insufficient to confer phage resistance. Overall, our findings suggest that the prey–predator relationship between bacteria and phages may have a role in modulating the composition of the microbiota. Our study also suggests that the microbiome structure of an individual may be an important factor in the design of phage-based therapy.