The era of the antibiotics, active against prokaryotic and lower eukaryotic infectious agents, is believed to be coming to an end, because of the rapid development of antibiotic resistance in susceptible organisms. Today’s drugs are mostly targeted to a single step to inhibit progression of a...

As our knowledge of the cellular content and intercellular dynamics of the indigenous microbiota increases, so too does our ability to rationally adjust its composition to heighten its specific pathogen‑excluding capabilities. In replacement therapy the principal objective is to modulate...

Virulence factors of pathogenic bacteria by definition play a crucial role in infectivity and pathogenesis. Many of these factors have evolved to modulate the host immune response often in a manner that favours survival of the infectious agent. In particular, these immunomodulating virulence...

If biotechnology describes the exploitation of living systems or their products towards biomedical processes, then few entities have a greater biotechnological potential than the use of bacteriophages to cure human illness. Many researchers studying infectious diseases have little doubt that...

Endolysins are bacteriophage‑encoded peptidoglycan hydrolases that accumulate in the cytosol of phage‑infected bacterial cells, resulting in eventual cell lysis at the end of the lytic cycle. In view of the prevalence of antibiotic‑resistant bacteria, these enzymes represent a...

The use of live attenuated bacteria as prophylactic vaccines has a proven track record in human and veterinary medical praxis. In addition, bacteria‑based medicines are currently developed for the treatment of diseases such as cancer, gene deficiencies, autoimmunity and allergy. Treatment...

Botulinum toxin is the most potent neurotoxin known to man. It is produced by the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum. In the early nineteenth century, it was responsible for large outbreaks of botulism , a systemic food poisoning. In the twentieth century, botulinum toxin has developed from...

The term patho‑biotechnology describes the exploitation of pathogenic bacteria for beneficial applications in food and biomedicine. We propose extending this definition to include viruses, for several reasons. Viruses, as well as providing a threat to human and animal health, can be used...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a recently discovered powerful research tool which allows the targeted "silencing" of particular genes. RNAi is also thought to have immense therapeutic potential to treat and prevent a wide range of diseases from inflammation to cancer and to target genes which have...

The recent discovery that genes carried by bacterial vectors can be functionally transferred to mammalian cells has led to the utilization of various bacterial strains in gene therapy. Genetically modified, nonpathogenic bacteria that have been used include attenuated strains of Salmonella,...

The so‑called DNA vaccination represents one of the most notable tools under development in the field of vaccinology. The concept of administering the gene coding for any given protective antigen and make responsible vaccinee’s own cells to produce the protein appeals as too simple to be...

Intracellularly replicating bacteria are suitable tools for a combined immunological and drug therapy of tumors. For example, virulence‑attenuated strains of L. monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp. and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC) have already been used to...

Although described for over a century, scientists and clinicians alike are only now beginning to realise the significant medical applications of probiotic cultures. Given the increasing commercial and clinical relevance of probiotics, improving their stress tolerance profile and ability to...

Viruses and microorganisms that cause disease in insects have been under evaluation as insecticides for more than a century. Only Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been a commercial success and even so it still represents less than 1% of insecticide usage worldwide. The development of recombinant...

The Bacterial Ghost (BG) Vaccine Platform Technology represents a particulate carrier system for protein subunit or DNA‑encoded antigens endowed with intrinsic adjuvant properties. By all its biological background BG vaccines alert the immune system with signals for a bacterial infection...