Characterization of Enterococcus faecalis phage IME-EF1 and its endolysin

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 13;8(11):e80435. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080435. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Enterococcus faecalis is increasingly becoming an important nosocomial infection opportunistic pathogen. E. faecalis can easily obtain drug resistance, making it difficult to be controlled in clinical settings. Using bacteriophage as an alternative treatment to drug-resistant bacteria has been revitalized recently, especially for fighting drug-resistant bacteria. In this research, an E. faecalis bacteriophage named IME-EF1 was isolated from hospital sewage. Whole genomic sequence analysis demonstrated that the isolated IME-EF1 belong to the Siphoviridae family, and has a linear double-stranded DNA genome consisting of 57,081 nucleotides. The IME-EF1 genome has a 40.04% G+C content and contains 98 putative coding sequences. In addition, IME-EF1 has an isometric head with a width of 35 nm to 60 nm and length of 75 nm to 90 nm, as well as morphology resembling a tadpole. IME-EF1 can adsorb to its host cells within 9 min, with an absorbance rate more than 99% and a latent period time of 25 min. The endolysin of IME-EF1 contains a CHAP domain in its N-terminal and has a wider bactericidal spectrum than its parental bacteriophage, including 2 strains of vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis. When administrated intraperitoneally, one dose of IME-EF1 or its endolysin can reduce bacterial count in the blood and protected the mice from a lethal challenge of E. faecalis, with a survival rate of 60% or 80%, respectively. Although bacteriophage could rescue mice from bacterial challenge, to the best of our knowledge, this study further supports the potential function of bacteriophage in dealing with E. faecalis infection in vivo. The results also indicated that the newly isolated bacteriophage IME-EF1 enriched the arsenal library of lytic E. faecalis bacteriophages and presented another choice for phage therapy in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteriolysis
  • Bacteriophages / classification
  • Bacteriophages / isolation & purification
  • Bacteriophages / physiology*
  • Bacteriophages / ultrastructure
  • Endopeptidases / genetics*
  • Endopeptidases / metabolism*
  • Enterococcus faecalis / virology*
  • Female
  • Gene Order
  • Genome, Viral
  • Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / microbiology
  • Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / mortality
  • Mice
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • Endopeptidases
  • endolysin

Grants and funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81072350, 81072250), the China Mega-Project on Major Drug Development (No. 2011ZX09401-023), the China Mega-Project on Infectious Disease Prevention (No. 2011ZX10004-001), and the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and BioSecurity Program (No. SKLPBS1113). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.