The Matrix Binding Lytic Agents Against Bacterial Pathogens

Abstract

Bacterial pathogens contribute a major part in the increasing rate of morbidity and newlinemortality around the globe. Several antibacterial strategies have been implemented which could either kill or slow down the growth rate of the invading pathogen. Widely used are antibiotics because of their ease of production, smaller size and simpler pharmacology compared to other alternatives. However, with the alarming issues related to increasing antibiotic resistance conferred by the pathogens, there is an urgent need for alternative strategies to tackle the problem. Alternatives include vaccines that trigger the immune system against pathogen, probiotics that could outcompete them, bacteriophages that infect bacteria and cell wall hydrolases that cleave the bacterial cell wall, antibodies that bind to different epitopes of the pathogens and trigger the clearance by the host immune system (Ghosh et al., 2019). A targeted line of microbiome engineering against the pathogenic bacteria must be of high consideration in order to protect commensals in the host organism where bacterial cell wall hydrolases (autolysins) or bacteriophages (phages) could be potential candidates. Autolysins are enzymes that cleave peptidoglycan within the bacterial cell wall and play a major role in cell division, growth and development of bacteria. Their activities are tightly regulated to prevent cell wall destruction and further autolysis during the newlinegrowth phase, but their overexpression leads to the host cell lysis (Uehara and Bernhardt, newline2011). Exploiting the exogenous application of autolysins for their antibacterial newlinepotential, purified autolysins like recombinant LytA from Streptococcus pneumonia newlinehave been used as a therapeutic. Cell wall hydrolases have also been studied to act newlinesynergistically with antibiotics to kill the target pathogens (Wittekind andSchuch, 2016). newlinePhage therapy deploys phages that are viruses capable of infecting and replicating newlinewithin bacterial cells and are being widely used and evaluated to thwart the issues of newlineantibiotic ..