Regarding your proposition to utilize your phage against Tuberculosis and other bacterial infections, would it be beneficial to combine antibiotics and also a phage to treat bacterial infections? Or would it be beneficial to just use one instead of the other?
That’s a really interesting idea, I am not 100% sure on the answer, it would be really interesting to test. I personally wouldn’t combine antibiotics and phage therapy, because there is still a lot of unknown about the interactions of phage with different things, and I am not aware of any research that has successfully combined these two without negative interactions. I also think that since antibiotic resistance is so common in infections, phage therapy is really a last resort because it has to be approved on a case-by-case scenario, only when antibiotics don’t work.
It would not be able to conclude for certain that Simmy was in either of those clusters, since only sequencing can determine that, but if one of those clusters did end up coming back positive, it would strengthen the hypothesis of Simmy being in that particular cluster. It wouldn’t quite change anything about the current conclusions, but since cluster Y phages are typically temperate, it would be really interesting to see if Simmy has similar enough genes to also be classified officially as temperate.
Yes! Typically, it will only be able to infect another strain in the same genus, like M. smeg and M. tuberculosis, I haven’t heard of a single phage being able to infect outside of the genus. This is mostly connected to the specific binding features of phage/bacterial membranes, since families will tend to share traits that lead to being able to be infected by the same phage.
Does the lack of results for which cluster Simmy is apart of impact how effective it may be as a phage therapy, regardless of your other results indicating it’s function.
I don’t believe the lack of results indicating the cluster really means anything about Simmy’s efficacy in general, but cluster N is typically containing temperate phages. A1 is a tricky cluster to evaluate efficacy because it is a subcluster and the overall A cluster is so varied, but they also lean towards temperate phage in this cluster. So hopefully, because neither of these clusters was positive, it may indicate that Simmy is actually lytic. It is possible that Simmy is temperate and has just had lysogeny genes deleted, so it doesn’t appear temperate. But overall, we can’t really make a specific claim on the effective nature of each cluster because it tends to be phage specific.
Personally, I think an issue with our methods was just the inability(based on time constraints) to repeat test the restriction digest and PCR. I think that being able to repeat these tests would have led to clearer results, instead of being sort of in between on some potential results.
Regarding your proposition to utilize your phage against Tuberculosis and other bacterial infections, would it be beneficial to combine antibiotics and also a phage to treat bacterial infections? Or would it be beneficial to just use one instead of the other?
That’s a really interesting idea, I am not 100% sure on the answer, it would be really interesting to test. I personally wouldn’t combine antibiotics and phage therapy, because there is still a lot of unknown about the interactions of phage with different things, and I am not aware of any research that has successfully combined these two without negative interactions. I also think that since antibiotic resistance is so common in infections, phage therapy is really a last resort because it has to be approved on a case-by-case scenario, only when antibiotics don’t work.
What would it mean if the PCRs for clusters Y and A5 were positive? Does that change anything about your current conclusion about Simmy?
It would not be able to conclude for certain that Simmy was in either of those clusters, since only sequencing can determine that, but if one of those clusters did end up coming back positive, it would strengthen the hypothesis of Simmy being in that particular cluster. It wouldn’t quite change anything about the current conclusions, but since cluster Y phages are typically temperate, it would be really interesting to see if Simmy has similar enough genes to also be classified officially as temperate.
Very nice presentation! Can one kind of bacteriophage effect many different strains of bacteria?
Yes! Typically, it will only be able to infect another strain in the same genus, like M. smeg and M. tuberculosis, I haven’t heard of a single phage being able to infect outside of the genus. This is mostly connected to the specific binding features of phage/bacterial membranes, since families will tend to share traits that lead to being able to be infected by the same phage.
Does the lack of results for which cluster Simmy is apart of impact how effective it may be as a phage therapy, regardless of your other results indicating it’s function.
I don’t believe the lack of results indicating the cluster really means anything about Simmy’s efficacy in general, but cluster N is typically containing temperate phages. A1 is a tricky cluster to evaluate efficacy because it is a subcluster and the overall A cluster is so varied, but they also lean towards temperate phage in this cluster. So hopefully, because neither of these clusters was positive, it may indicate that Simmy is actually lytic. It is possible that Simmy is temperate and has just had lysogeny genes deleted, so it doesn’t appear temperate. But overall, we can’t really make a specific claim on the effective nature of each cluster because it tends to be phage specific.
Were there any inconsistencies or problems in your methods?
Personally, I think an issue with our methods was just the inability(based on time constraints) to repeat test the restriction digest and PCR. I think that being able to repeat these tests would have led to clearer results, instead of being sort of in between on some potential results.