Viral genotherapy: potential of bacteriophages in dentistry

Abstract

The bacteriophages are being used in therapy for more than 100 years in Eastern Europe and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. These bacteriophages are viruses that parasitize a bacterium after infecting it, followed by replication through the lysogenic replicative cycle. Since decades, clusters of microorganisms have attracted dental researchers, clinicians, and public health dentists, as the bacterial species cause the most frequent and severe healthcare-associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other similar infections. This group includes the pathogens Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae,  A. acinomycemcomitans spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa sp, and Enterobacter sp. and is identified with the term ESKAPE, referencing to the capacity of its members to escape the bactericidal activity of antibiotics through multiple drug resistance mechanisms, which defines antibiotic resistance.