6 documents found, page 1 of 1
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...
Screening and in silico characterization of prophages in Helicobacter pylori ge...
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Cunha; Presa, Eva; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Oleastro, Mónica; Azeredo, Joana; Figueiredo, CéuTemperate bacterio(phages) play an important role on the evolution of pathogenic bacteria. Nevertheless, information on their role in Helicobacter pylori (an important gastric pathogen bacterium) is scarce. The present study developed a workflow for the identification of prophages in Portuguese H. pylori clinical strains, proposing the use of a new PCR-based screening method. The genome of strains with differen...
H. pylori phages: from genome release to hope for use as therapy
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Cunha; Presa, Eva; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Gonçalves, Raquel F. S.; Pinheiro, A. C.The increasing antibiotic-resistant Helicobacter pylori infections worldwide and the ineffectiveness of treatments led the World Health Organization to designate clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori as a high-priority bacterium for antibiotic research and development. (Bacterio)phages, viruses that infect bacteria, showing effectiveness in the treatment of pathogenic bacteria, could be a promising alternative str...
Induction and initial characterization of a new Helicobacter pylori prophage
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Cunha; Presa, Eva; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Mónica Oleastro; Azeredo, Joana; Figueiredo, CéuHelicobacter pylori is a Gram-negative bacterium that colonizes the stomach and it is considered one of the major human pathogens. Current treatments include a set of antibiotics with decreasing eradication rates, mainly due to the increase in the appearance of antibiotic-resistant strains. Bacterio(phages) have emerged in recent years as an effective alternative to fight bacterial infections. For therapeutic p...
Comparison of bioinformatics tools to predict the presence of prophages in Heli...
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Cunha; Presa, Eva; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Oleastro, Mónica; Azeredo, Joana; Figueiredo, CéuBacterio(phages) are specific viruses for bacteria, being their natural enemies. When the genome of a phage is integrated into the host bacterial genome, it is named prophage. These are a latent form of phages, in which the viral genes can increase the virulence and/or fitness characteristics of the host. This life cycle - lysogenic - does not cause the bacterial cell to rupture. Prophages have already been ide...
Helicobacter pylori prophages: screening, detection, induction and potential th...
Ferreira, Rute Vanessa Novais; Sousa, Cláudia Sofia Cunha; Presa, Eva; Pires, Diana Priscila Penso; Oleastro, Mónica; Azeredo, Joana; Figueiredo, CéuHelicobacter pylori is a microaerophilic bacterium that chronically infects the human gastric mucosa. Infections caused by this pathogen are difficult to treat, mainly due to the increased resistance of this species to conventional antibiotics. Therefore, it is important to develop antibiotic alternative or complementary approaches to tackle H. pylori infections. Bacterio(phages) have proven to be efficient ant...