• Identification and treatment of infections caused by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by bacteriophages
  • yousef alaee mollabashi,1,* seyede elahe khalili nasab,2
    1. Young Researchers and Elite Club, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran.
    2. Young Researchers and Elite Club, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran.


  • Introduction: Pathogenic bacteria have become one of the major concerns of researchers with high prevalence in the environment, food sources and etc. Escherichia coli O157:H7 are one of the pathogenic bacteria that cause and transmit diseases such as bloody diarrhea by contaminating food sources such as vegetables and meat. Staphylococcus aureus is an optional gram-positive bacterium of the optional anaerobic pathway, catalase-positive and coagulase-positive, which causes food contamination by the production of enterotoxin. Species of this bacterium show resistance to the antibiotic methicillin due to the mecA gene, which in introduced MRSA abbreviated as methicillin Resistance Staphylococcus Aureus. They want to introduce rapid and easy identification and safe treatments to eliminate infections. Methods available to identify pathogens include such as ELISA and biochemical tests. The drawbacks of the more expensive methods are the high detection threshold of time consuming and difficulty. Antibiotics were previously considered to be the best treatment for these bacterial infections, but over time and for various reasons such as over usage, bacterial resistance came up. Bacteriophages are one of the new proposed methods that can detect and treat these infections. Bacteriophages are a group of viruses that transmit more bacteria and most of phages are in the order of the Caudovirales. Groups of phages are identified based on the type of nucleoid acid, contain or not having coat used in agriculture, phage therapy and hospitalization. . Phage therapy has been used to treat bacterial diseases that have multiple drug resistance and antibiotic resistance. Our aim is to evaluate the results of studies on the identification of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria by phages and the destruction of these pathogens including phages of infection.
  • Methods: Articles related were extracted using keywords phage, receptor phage, antibiotic resistance, phage identification of Escherichia coli. All of the available articles are from internal and external sites such as Science Direct, Pub Med, and Google Scholar excluded unrelated articles and used articles for writing and study
  • Results: In contamination investigations of minced meat and apple juice in lab condition, phage PhiV10lux was used to identify Escherichia coli O157:H7 which it could identify the bacteria in 13 CFU/ml and 17 CFU/g. biosensors used to identify were 1.0 *10₂ – 1.0 * 10⁷ CFU/ml. Other reasons to use phages in this study could be high specificity of bacteria, lack of effect on host body cells, aliquots and bacterial destruction; treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections and they increase or decrease by bacterial activity. The Ly5GH15 phage was used to eliminate infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus resistant to methicillin- (MRSA) which the elimination of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria was reported. Research carried out in 1982 showed that the use of phages in the treatment of Escherichia coli infections treated the host with no adverse effects, affecting healthy cells and micro fluorination. In the 20th century in 1981 to 1986, patients with infections of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli who were resistant to antibiotic treatment were used and with a positive response rate of 95% this study finished. In 2013 one study to measure the most effective phage on Staphylococcus aureus MRSA, of all the phages used, the LizAnk phage had the most effect. In a study conducted in Iran in 2017, phage B1 morph type was used on Escherichia coli isolated from wound of diabetic patients which was successfully completed.
  • Conclusion: When antibiotic resistance has become a concern for professionals in the field and everyone is looking for a new solution, the use of phages can be effective. Using phages can be a promising way for the world of science. Using more and designing newer research to find the disadvantages and dangers of using phages can be effective. Studies of other infectious diseases of another microbial origin and treatment by phages are also recommended.
  • Keywords: Escherichia coli