Pathogenic Microbiology Commons^™

Crystallographic Structure Determination Of Bacteriophage-Encoded Enzymes That Specifically Target Pathogenic Bacteria, Marta Sanz Gaitero

Theses

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a serious public health concern. Infections that some decades ago could be treated with antibiotics now sometimes do not respond to traditional treatment, causing higher mortality and economic losses. An alternative to the use of antibiotics are bacteria's natural predators, bacteriophages (or phages), and specifically their lytic enzymes. These proteins are produced by phages to degrade bacterial peptidoglycan to inject their genetic material into the bacteria (virion-associated peptidoglycan hydrolases) or to release their progeny once the infection is finished (endolysins). They can be applied exogenously to lyse Gram-positive bacteria or be genetically engineered to lyse Gram-negative …