Roy Sleator
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork

Colin Hill
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, Ireland

About this Book

In 2006, the term ‘Patho-biotechnology’ was coined to describe the exploitation of pathogens, or pathogen derived factors, for beneficial applications in biotechnology, food and medicine.

This concept encompasses three broad areas:

i. The first approach (outlined in Chapters 1-10) involves the use of selected pathogens as effective prophylactic and/or therapeutic agents by replacement technology. The rationale for this “fighting fire with fire” approach being that for most species the strongest niche competitors are often the same or closely related species.

ii. The second approach (outlined in Chapters 11-14) involves the isolation and purification of pathogen-specific immunogenic proteins for direct application, thus removing the necessity for potentially harmful bacterial carrier platforms.

iii. The third approach (outlined in Chapter 15) provides an alternative to either (i) or (ii) above. This approach involves equipping non-pathogenic bacteria with the genetic elements necessary to survive the many stresses encountered outside the host as well as the myriad of antimicrobial hurdles faced during host transit and/or colonisation.

Table of Contents

1. Application of Bacterial Pathogens in Replacement Therapy
John R. Tagg, Jeremy P. Burton and Philip A. Wescombe

2. Improvement of Insect Pathogens as Insecticides through Genetic Engineering
Brian A. Federici, Bryony C. Bonning and Raymond J. St Leger

3. Phage Therapy: A Trojan Horse Approach to the Control of Intracellular Pathogens
Lawrence Broxmeyer

4. Bacterial Ghosts as Vaccine and Drug Delivery Platforms
Ulrike Beate Mayr, Verena Juliana Koller, Petra Lubitz and Werner Lubitz

5. In Vivo Remote Control of Bacterial Vectors for Prophylaxis and Therapy
Holger Loessner and Siegfried Weiss

6. Genetic Immunization: Bacteria as DNA Vaccine Delivery Vehicles
Pablo Daniel Becker, Miriam Noerder and Carlos Alberto Guzmán

7. Bacteria Mediated Gene Therapy Strategies
Sophie Conchon and Georges Vassaux

8. Use of Intracellular Bacteria for the Development of Tools for Tumor Therapy and the Detection
of Novel Antibacterial Targets
Christoph Schoen, Jochen Stritzker, Thilo M. Fuchs, Stephanie Weibel, Ivaylo Gentschev, Aladar A. Szalay
and Werner Goebel

9. Bacterial Vectors for RNAi Delivery
Thu Nguyen and Johannes H. Fruehauf

10. Viral Pathogens as Therapeutic Delivery Vehicles
Helen O’Shea

11. Promiscuous Drugs from Pathogenic Bacteria in the Post-Antibiotics Era
Arsenio M. Fialho, Tapas K. Das Gupta and Ananda M. Chakrabarty

12. Attack and Counter-Attack: Targeted Immunomodulation Using Bacterial Virulence Factors
Mohammed Bahey-El-Din, Brendan T. Griffin and Cormac G.M. Gahan

13. Cosmetic and Therapeutic Applications of Botulinum Toxin in the Head and Neck
Nwanmegha Young and Andrew Blitzer

14. The Use of Recombinant Phage Lysins for the Control of Bacterial Pathogens
Marianne Horgan, Aidan Coffey, R. Paul Ross, Jim O’Mahony, Gerald F. Fitzgerald
and Olivia McAuliffe

15. Engineered Pharmabiotics with Improved Therapeutic Potential
Roy Sleator and Colin Hill