Wednesday, July 11, 2007 8:44:13 AM
Interesting stuff - a virus to kill bacteria and a virus engineered to kill a virus:
Scientists Build Bacteria-Killing Organisms From Scratch
By Brandon Keim July 10, 2007 | 3:49:07 PMCategories: Synthetic Biology
By hacking a virus with artificial DNA, researchers at MIT and Boston University created a bacteria-killing machine that demonstrates the potential of synthetic biology.
The original virus -- called a bacteriophage, as it targets bacteria -- was modified with plug-and-play DNA sequences that made it produce enzymes that kill e. coli and break down the protein layers secreted by bacterial colonies. These layers, known as biofilms, insulate bacteria from regular bacteriophages (and antibiotics). The films make it difficult to keep medical equipment and water supply systems sterile.
To test the engineered T7 phage, the team cultivated E. coli biofilms on plastic pegs. They found that their engineered phage eliminated 99.997% of the bacterial biofilm cells, an improvement by two orders of magnitude over the phage's nonengineered cousin.
I talked to the lead investigator, James Collins, for an upcoming article on synthetic biology regulation. We discussed this latest work, and his description of the mechanism was pretty cool:
It's hard to get into biofilms. So we engineered the bacteriophages, once they got inside, to express an enzyme that would degrade the biofilm. Once inside the cell, they actually use cell's own machinery to do that. In addition, they make copies of themselves ... and then, when the cell bursts, it infects other bacteria.
And the biggest news about the new phage isn't what it could do to e. coli, but how the technique could be broadly applied:
The team's modular strategy can be thought of as a "plug and play" library, says Collins. "The library could contain different phages that target different species or strains of bacteria, each constructed using related design principles to express different enzymes."
A broad Wired survey of synthetic biology here http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/mit.html .
Team builds viruses to combat harmful 'biofilms' [MIT]
http://www.physorg.com/news102951008.html
Dispersing biofilms with engineered enzymatic bacteriophage [PNAS]
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/27/11197
now only if they could figure out how to build a virus to kill a virus from scratch :P
Posted by: jay | Jul 10, 2007 7:11:07 PM
This is incredible; this will change how we fight all manner of diseases. If they can do it with bacteria it may be only a matter of time before its done for viruses like HIV and AIDS.
Posted by: Rob | Jul 10, 2007 9:03:45 PM
Uhh... Rob, AIDS isn't a virus...
Posted by: jon | Jul 10, 2007 11:25:55 PM
Uhh... Rob, AIDS isn't a virus...
Posted by: jon | Jul 10, 2007 11:26:04 PM
I seem to remember seeing a documentary about Russians using Bacteriophages as a therapy instead of antibiotics (something only revealed after the collapse of the Soviet Union). It was at a time when the media was again concerned about antibiotic resistant bacteria. It sounded like a fantastic solution because the viruses evolved/mutated in unison with the bacteria as they improved their defences. In the documentary an American (I think) was investing in the research, but that was the last I heard of it until I saw this article now (not that I've been looking). Hopefully something will come from this and we can see some movement on antibiotic resistant bacteria whether it's MRSA or resistant strains of TB.
Posted by: Issac | Jul 11, 2007 12:24:47 AM
uhh, jon - don't be smart.
as for engineering viruses to do a similar thing to other viruses, there's a much larger gap to cross. The approach used by the phage viruses is to use the host organism's own reproductive capacity to propagate the virus itself, because a virus has no reproductive capacity of it's own. it is mostly just a protective protein layer with DNA inside.
so to have a virus effectively attack other viruses we need to to do 2 things,
1) excrete a protien to destroy other viruses
2) infect another organisms' cells in order to reproduce.
it might not seem like too much of an ask, but in reality the ballancing is not that easy because a virus' offensive mechanism is usually devoted to getting into the type of cells it needs in order to reproduce, and since they cannot reproduce inside other viruses, there's a step missing in the equation.
One exiting area we are looking into is creating what we call "programmer viruses" which are organisms that attack other viruses and reprogram their DNA with a new sequence that activates when the targeted virus reproduces in it's own host cell. Instead of reproducing another of the targeted viruses, a programmer is produced instead. This way the harmful virus becomes the agent of its own destruction.
quite poetic really!
-- Dr. C
Posted by: Dr. C | Jul 11, 2007 2:04:26 AM
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/designer-virus-.html
Scientists Build Bacteria-Killing Organisms From Scratch
By Brandon Keim July 10, 2007 | 3:49:07 PMCategories: Synthetic Biology
By hacking a virus with artificial DNA, researchers at MIT and Boston University created a bacteria-killing machine that demonstrates the potential of synthetic biology.
The original virus -- called a bacteriophage, as it targets bacteria -- was modified with plug-and-play DNA sequences that made it produce enzymes that kill e. coli and break down the protein layers secreted by bacterial colonies. These layers, known as biofilms, insulate bacteria from regular bacteriophages (and antibiotics). The films make it difficult to keep medical equipment and water supply systems sterile.
To test the engineered T7 phage, the team cultivated E. coli biofilms on plastic pegs. They found that their engineered phage eliminated 99.997% of the bacterial biofilm cells, an improvement by two orders of magnitude over the phage's nonengineered cousin.
I talked to the lead investigator, James Collins, for an upcoming article on synthetic biology regulation. We discussed this latest work, and his description of the mechanism was pretty cool:
It's hard to get into biofilms. So we engineered the bacteriophages, once they got inside, to express an enzyme that would degrade the biofilm. Once inside the cell, they actually use cell's own machinery to do that. In addition, they make copies of themselves ... and then, when the cell bursts, it infects other bacteria.
And the biggest news about the new phage isn't what it could do to e. coli, but how the technique could be broadly applied:
The team's modular strategy can be thought of as a "plug and play" library, says Collins. "The library could contain different phages that target different species or strains of bacteria, each constructed using related design principles to express different enzymes."
A broad Wired survey of synthetic biology here http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/mit.html .
Team builds viruses to combat harmful 'biofilms' [MIT]
http://www.physorg.com/news102951008.html
Dispersing biofilms with engineered enzymatic bacteriophage [PNAS]
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/27/11197
now only if they could figure out how to build a virus to kill a virus from scratch :P
Posted by: jay | Jul 10, 2007 7:11:07 PM
This is incredible; this will change how we fight all manner of diseases. If they can do it with bacteria it may be only a matter of time before its done for viruses like HIV and AIDS.
Posted by: Rob | Jul 10, 2007 9:03:45 PM
Uhh... Rob, AIDS isn't a virus...
Posted by: jon | Jul 10, 2007 11:25:55 PM
Uhh... Rob, AIDS isn't a virus...
Posted by: jon | Jul 10, 2007 11:26:04 PM
I seem to remember seeing a documentary about Russians using Bacteriophages as a therapy instead of antibiotics (something only revealed after the collapse of the Soviet Union). It was at a time when the media was again concerned about antibiotic resistant bacteria. It sounded like a fantastic solution because the viruses evolved/mutated in unison with the bacteria as they improved their defences. In the documentary an American (I think) was investing in the research, but that was the last I heard of it until I saw this article now (not that I've been looking). Hopefully something will come from this and we can see some movement on antibiotic resistant bacteria whether it's MRSA or resistant strains of TB.
Posted by: Issac | Jul 11, 2007 12:24:47 AM
uhh, jon - don't be smart.
as for engineering viruses to do a similar thing to other viruses, there's a much larger gap to cross. The approach used by the phage viruses is to use the host organism's own reproductive capacity to propagate the virus itself, because a virus has no reproductive capacity of it's own. it is mostly just a protective protein layer with DNA inside.
so to have a virus effectively attack other viruses we need to to do 2 things,
1) excrete a protien to destroy other viruses
2) infect another organisms' cells in order to reproduce.
it might not seem like too much of an ask, but in reality the ballancing is not that easy because a virus' offensive mechanism is usually devoted to getting into the type of cells it needs in order to reproduce, and since they cannot reproduce inside other viruses, there's a step missing in the equation.
One exiting area we are looking into is creating what we call "programmer viruses" which are organisms that attack other viruses and reprogram their DNA with a new sequence that activates when the targeted virus reproduces in it's own host cell. Instead of reproducing another of the targeted viruses, a programmer is produced instead. This way the harmful virus becomes the agent of its own destruction.
quite poetic really!
-- Dr. C
Posted by: Dr. C | Jul 11, 2007 2:04:26 AM
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/designer-virus-.html
The SEC Must Go!
And jail shorters.
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