The Lytic Activity of Bacteriophage ZCSE9 against Salmonella enterica and Its Synergistic Effects with Kanamycin

Abstract

Salmonella, the causative agent of several diseases in humans and animals, including salmonellosis, septicemia, typhoid fever, and fowl typhoid, poses a serious threat to global public health and food safety. Globally, reports of therapeutic failures are increasing because of the increase in bacterial antibiotic resistance. Thus, this work highlights the combined phage–antibiotic therapy as a promising approach to combating bacterial resistance. In this manner, the phage ZCSE9 was isolated, and the morphology, host infectivity, killing curve, combination with kanamycin, and genome analysis of this phage were all examined. Morphologically, phage ZCSE9 is a siphovirus with a relatively broad host range. In addition, the phage can tolerate high temperatures until 80 °C with one log reduction and a basic environment (pH 11) without a significant decline. Furthermore, the phage prevents bacterial growth in the planktonic state, according to the results of the time-killing curve. Moreover, using the phage at MOI 0.1 with kanamycin against five different Salmonella serotypes reduces the required antibiotics to inhibit the growth of the bacteria. Comparative genomics and phylogenetic analysis suggested that phage ZCSE9, along with its close relatives Salmonella phages vB_SenS_AG11 and wksl3, belongs to the genus Jerseyvirus. In conclusion, phage ZCSE9 and kanamycin form a robust heterologous antibacterial combination that enhances the effectiveness of a phage-only approach for combating Salmonella.

Newly Isolated Virulent Salmophages for Biocontrol of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella in Ready-to-Eat Plant-Based Food

“…In the study by Islam et al [ 46 ], the latent period for salmophage LPST153 was 10 min, and the burst size was 113 ± 8 PFU cell −1 . In turn, in the study by Abdelsattar et al [ 47 ], the latent period for the salmophage ZCSE9 was 10 min, but the burst size was about 20 PFU cell −1 .…”

“…In the study by Abdelsattar et al [ 47 ], it was shown that the time necessary for adsorption of the maximum number of phages was almost 20 min for salmophage ZCSE9. Salmophage ZCSE9, in contrast to our two newly isolated phages, adsorbed very rapidly—within two minutes, it adsorbed 70% of viruses.…”

“…In the study conducted by Islam et al [ 46 ], salmophage LPST153 could consistently inhibit the growth of S . Typhimurium ATCC 13311 with fewer counts at MOI ratios of 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 over 12 h. In turn, the bactericidal activity of salmophage ZCSE9 was improved by increasing the MOI from 0.0001 to 10 [ 47 ]. Previous analyses revealed that a phage is more effective at reducing the host when used with high MOIs [ 50 , 51 ].…”

Genetic characteristics and integration specificity of Salmonella enterica temperate phages

“…Salmonella enterica has been traditionally classified to different serotypes (serovars) and was reported that >2,500 serotypes cause most human infections ( Jackson et al, 2013 ). Many researches focus on identifying and characterizing the temperate phages for specific S. enterica serotypes, such as phage mTmV in S. enterica serotype Typhimurium ( S. typhimurium ) ST34 ( Tassinari et al, 2020 ), phage BIS20 in S. typhimurium ( Sattar et al, 2022 ), phage ZCSE9 in S. typhimurium ( Abdelsattar et al, 2023 ), phage SGP-C in S. enterica serotype gallinarum biovar gallinarum ( S. gallinarum ; Ilyas et al, 2022 ), phages vB_SenM-1, vB_SenM-2, vB_SenS-3 in 20 S. enterica serotypes, including S. heidelberg , S. panama , S. typhimurium , S. cholerasuis , S. enteritidis , S. virchow , etc. ( Kosznik-Kwasnicka et al, 2020 ).…”

Characterization, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities of silver nanoparticles using the whole biofilm layer as a macromolecule in biosynthesis

“…Besides, they have the lowest bactericidal effect of 25 µg/mL for Bacillus cereus , 100 µg/mL for E. coli , S. aureus and S. enterica , 200 µg/mL for P. aeruginosa . Yet, when biofilm-AgNPs were combined with ZCSE9, which is specific for S. enterica 119 , its inhibitory and bactericidal effects were enhanced to have a higher effect in lower concentration, which is 3.1 µg/mL. These results were confirmed using a killing curve, which showed that when using biofilm-AgNPs with its MIC, it would inhibit the growth of the bacteria for up to 11 h. This long period of time might indicate the long-lasting effect of the biofilm-AgNPs.…”