Bacterial phage receptor

Bacterial phage receptors are a heterogeneous group of surface molecules, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS), outer membrane proteins (porins), teichoic acids, and appendages like pili or flagella, that serve as the essential docking sites for bacteriophages (Bertozzi Silva et al., 2016). In the context of the PhageBank initiative, these receptors are targeted by specific phages selected from a vast library to match the unique molecular profile of a patient's bacterial isolate (Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, 2023). The interaction is highly specific; a phage's receptor-binding proteins (RBPs) must recognize and bind to these surface structures to initiate the infection cycle and subsequent bacterial lysis (Lin et al., 2017). While highly effective for precision medicine, bacteria can develop resistance by mutating or downregulating these receptors, though this often results in a fitness cost or increased antibiotic sensitivity (Chan et al., 2016). Phage therapy leveraging these receptors represents a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics for recalcitrant, multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections (Schooley et al., 2017).

Other names

Bacterial surface receptors on pathogenic strains matched by PhageBank-selected phagesPhage receptorsBacteriophage attachment sitesBacterial surface ligands

Bacteriophage adsorption to specific surface receptors followed by viral genome injection and host cell lysis.