A major turning point is taking place in the scientific world in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Researchers at New England Biolabs and Yale University have succeeded in producing fully synthetic viruses in the laboratory environment to combat superbacteria.
Elchi.az reports that this study, published in the journal PNAS, paves the way for designing bacteria-eating viruses using only digital DNA data, without the need for natural samples.
Although the process of genetically modifying a virus using traditional methods is a laborious task that takes years, researchers have transformed this process into a digital design thanks to the Golden Gate Assembly platform.
Scientists created a virus targeting a resistant bacterium using 28 different synthetic DNA fragments commonly found in hospitals.
With this technique, the entire genome of the virus was assembled outside the cell using only sequence data, without the need for a physical virus sample, and turned into an active predator in the laboratory environment.
This method, which offers customization possibilities, allows the virus to target different types of bacteria by changing its tail fibers. In addition, thanks to the fluorescent markers added to the virus, the infection process can be monitored in real time.
Given the potential for antibiotic resistance to cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050, this new method offers a safer and faster treatment option by eliminating the need to store dangerous pathogens in the laboratory.
The ability to produce custom-tailored viruses plays an important role both in the treatment of diseases and in the development of biosensors that detect bacteria in drinking water.
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