Bacteriocins and bacteriophages: from bioinspiration to the clinic

Trabajo presentado en el IBA Annual Meeting (Infection Biology and Antimicrobials), celebrado en Oslo (Noruega) los días 1 y 2 de noviembre de 2021When looking for solutions, Science often observes nature for bioinspiration. In the era of the antibiotic crisis, novel antimicrobials are sought to fight multidrug resistant pathogens. Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides synthesized by bacteria. Initially proposed as natural antimicrobials for food biopreservation, they are slowly moving into the clinic. On the contrary, bacteriophages, viruses that exclusively infect and often kill bacteria, have been proposed as anti-infectives right after their discovery. In this talk, the properties and the mode of action of bacteriocins and bacteriophages will be reviewed with special emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of their use against antibiotic resistant bacteria