52 documents found, page 1 of 6
Screening and in silico characterization of prophages in Helicobacter pylori cl...
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Pinto, Graça; Presa, Eva; Oleastro, Mónica; Silva, Catarina; Vieira, Luís; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia CunhaThe increase of antibiotic resistance calls for alternatives to control Helicobacter pylori, a Gram-negative bacterium associated with various gastric diseases. Bacteriophages (phages) can be highly effective in the treatment of pathogenic bacteria. Here, we developed a method to identify prophages in H. pylori genomes aiming at their future use in therapy. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique test...
Directed evolution of phages in biofilms enhances Pseudomonas aeruginosa contro...
Meneses, Luciana; Valentová, Lucie; Santos, Sílvio Roberto Branco; Erdmann, Jelena; Crabbé, Aurélie; Plevka, Pavel; Häussler, SusannePseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. While bacteriophages hold potential as a treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections, the complex structure and heterogeneity of P. aeruginosa biofilms pose significant challenges to phage therapy. In this study, we investigate the adaptive evolution of the Pbunavirus phage PE1 to biofilms formed by a CF-der...
Improved Pseudomonas aeruginosa detection through the development of an enginee...
Santos, Sílvio Roberto Branco; Costa, Maria João; Meneses, Luciana; Pires, Diana Priscila PensoCurrently, there is a critical need for the rapid and accurate detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a major pathogen responsible for nosocomial infections and high mortality rates due to its antibiotic resistance and virulence. To address this challenge, a new method is here described based on the development of a genetically engineered reporter bacteriophage that expresses the NLuc luciferase upon bacterial in...
Biofilm matrix regulation by Candida glabrata Zap1 under acidic conditions: tra...
Gonçalves, Bruna Fernandes; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Fernandes, L.; Pacheco, Miguel; Ferreira, Tiago; Osório, Hugo; Soares, Ana RaquelThe vaginal acidic environment potentiates the formation of Candida glabrata biofilms, leading to complicated and recurrent infections. Importantly, the production of matrix is known to contribute to the recalcitrant features of Candida biofilms. In this study, we reveal that Zap1 regulates the matrix of C. glabrata acidic biofilms and analyzed the modulation of their transcriptome (by microarrays) and matrix p...
Synthetic biology to engineer bacteriophage genomes
Costa, Ana Rita; Azeredo, Joana; Pires, Diana Priscila PensoRecent advances in the synthetic biology field have enabled the development of new molecular biology techniques used to build specialized bacteriophages with new functionalities. Bacteriophages have been engineered toward a wide range of applications, including pathogen control and detection, targeted drug delivery, or even assembly of new materials. In this chapter, two strategies that have been successfully u...
Exploring the transcriptional landscape of phagehost interactions using novel h...
Putzeys, Leena; Wicke, Laura; Brandão, Ana Catarina Ribeiro; Boon, Maarten; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Azeredo, Joana; Vogel, Jörg; Lavigne, RobIn the last decade, powerful high-throughput sequencing approaches have emerged to analyse microbial transcriptomes at a global scale. However, to date, applications of these approaches to microbial viruses such as phages remain scarce. Tailoring these techniques to virus-infected bacteria promises to obtain a detailed picture of the underexplored RNA biology and molecular processes during infection. In additio...
The inaugural mBio Junior Editorial Boardlessons learned and the path forward t...
Adinortey, Cynthia Ayefoumi; Dolan, Stephen K.; Doore, Sarah; Lijek, Rebeccah; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Yu, Wenqi; Draganova, Elizabeth B.The inaugural Junior Editorial Board (JEB) of mBio consisted of 64 early-career researchers active from 2022 to 2023. The goal of the JEB was to train early-career researchers in the art of peer review under the guidance of experienced editors. JEB members gained hands-on experience in peer review by participating in modules detailing the publishing process through the lenses of the journal, editor, and reviewe...
Fast and sensitive detection of pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical settings usi...
Costa, Maria João Caetano; Meneses, Luciana Amorim Perestrelo; Azeredo, Joana; Santos, Sílvio Roberto Branco; Pires, Diana Priscila PensoP. aeruginosa is a bacterial pathogen responsible for a wide range of infections. As a result, the World Health Organization identified it as one of the top priority pathogens that urgently calls for the development of novel treatments. Bacteriophages have emerged as a promising therapeutic approach and their properties can be enhanced by phage-engineering. This opens an extensive variety of possibilities, allo...
Impact of phage predation on P. aeruginosa adhered to human airway epithelium: ...
Brandão, Ana Catarina; Putzeys, Leena; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Voet, Marleen; Paeshuyse, Jan; Azeredo, Joana; Lavigne, RobPhage therapy is a promising adjunct therapeutic approach against bacterial multidrug-resistant infections, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa-derived infections. Nevertheless, the current knowledge about the phage-bacteria interaction within a human environment is limited. In this work, we performed a transcriptome analysis of phage-infected P. aeruginosa adhered to a human epithelium (Nuli-1 ATCC® CRL-4011). To...
CkP1 bacteriophage, a S16-like myovirus that recognizes Citrobacter koseri lipo...
Oliveira, Hugo Alexandre Mendes; Santos, Sílvio Roberto Branco; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Boeckaerts, Dimitri; Pinto, Graça; Domingues, RitaCitrobacter koseri is an emerging Gram-negative bacterial pathogen, which causes urinary tract infections. We isolated and characterized a novel S16-like myovirus CKP1 (vB\_CkoM\\_CkP1), infecting C. koseri. CkP1 has a host range covering the whole C. koseri species, i.e., all strains that were tested, but does not infect other species. Its linear 168,463-bp genome contains 291 coding sequences, sharing sequenc...