Targeted drugs could kill only harmful bugs

• Autores: Anna Nowogrodzki
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3042, 2015, pág. 12
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Timothy Lu and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made a single phage modifiable with bacteria-attacking machinery from other phages. In theory, that could reduce regulatory hold-ups. Phage DNA is difficult to manipulate in the lab, so Lu's team made their modifications while the phages were in yeast. They swapped in genes from other phages to change the phage tail--a needle that punches through a target bacterial membrane. They could then direct the virus to target new bacteria. The phage normally kills E. coli, but by swapping in different tails, the team made it kill at least 99 per cent of either Yersinia or Klebsiella bacteria