The present invention relates to a new cocktail of bacteriophages with specific lytic activity against Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella paratyphi B., for reducing, eliminating and/or preventing them in farm animals and animals from the poultry sector, such as poultry, hens and breeding hens, in addition to eggs. It may be administered as an additive in the feed, in water or by spray. Moreover, the cocktail may be used as a disinfectant in work areas of farms and abattoirs, and in processed foods, without affecting the organoleptic properties of the product.

The present disclosure provides compositions including recombinant K1E bacteriophages, methods for making the same, and uses thereof. The recombinant K1E bacteriophages disclosed herein are useful for the identification and/or antibiotic susceptibility profiling of specific bacterial strains/species present in a sample.

A method of recovering viable phage from, for example, a crude phage preparation such as a lysate resulting from amplification of phage in bacterial cell culture is disclosed. The method may be universal; that is, applicable to the purification of a broad range of phage species and strains. The phage product resulting from the method may have an acceptably low endotoxin titer (e.g. less than 500 EU/ml) and sufficiently high phage titer (e.g. >1?10.sup.9 PFU/ml) for use in therapeutic applications.

A visual continuous spatial directed evolution method is disclosed. The host grows and moves in a solid culture space, the host carrying a foreign target gene to be evolved and containing a gene element that assists the evolution of the target gene, the target gene being correlated with the growth and movement of the host. Depending on different spatial distribution patterns formed in the solid culture space during the growth and movement of the host, screening is performed to obtain an evolved product. This method is carried out directly in the solid culture space. Depending on images of different spatial distribution morphologies visible to the naked eye that are locally formed, selection of evolved products is performed without the need for liquid fed-batch culture equipment. In addition, the evolution effect is visually observed through the infection spots formed during evolution, so that no real-time monitoring equipment is required.

The present invention relates to the field of proteases. More specifically, the present invention provides compositions and methods useful for profiling protease activity using phage display. In one embodiment, a display vector useful for profiling protease activity comprises a nucleic acid sequence encoding (a) a peptide to be displayed on the surface of the vector; (b) a first affinity tag C-terminal to the peptide; and (c) a second affinity tag N-terminal to the peptide. The display vector can comprise a virus, bacteriophage, yeast, bacteria, retrovirus, ribosome or mRNA. In particular embodiments, the peptide comprises a human peptidome library peptide.

The utility of directed-in vitro evolution of phages in a phage cocktail, i.e., phage training, using panels of multidrug resistant strains of P. aeruginosa or K. pneumoniae was demonstrated effective for the development of phages having broader host ranges of MDR P. aeruginosa or K. pneumoniae. The phage clones obtained by this method have lytic activity against more host strains than their parental phages. Sequencing results of the trained phages showed significant genetic changes from the parental phages. Some trained phages having lytic activity in an expanded range of MDR bacterial strains was proved to be stable, indicating the genetic changes that accumulated were not readily reversible. One of the phage clones showing host range stability was selected and incorporated into a previously used phage cocktail. The new phage cocktail provided improved therapeutic efficacy in a mouse model of wound infection. Taken together, these results show the utility of in vitro phage training in the development of more efficacious phage therapeutics to target the critical drug-resistant pathogens P. aeruginosa as well as K. pneumoniae. Based on these results, a new method for phage training and pharmaceutical composition comprising one of the trained phages is suggested.

The invention provide isolated peptides, protides and conjugates having novel peptide sequences which are able to induce antimicrobial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative or programmed cell death activity. The invention also provides a method of inducing programmed cell death in a cell by contacting the cell with an isolated peptide, protide or conjugate described herein. In some aspects, the method can be used in the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a disease, such as an infection, cancer, autoimmune disease, or inflammatory disease.

Provided herein are ultraviolet light blocking compositions composed of an active agent containing a phage, phage particle, or other functional component thereof, or another viral particle, or other functional component thereof, in addition to one or more secondary agents useful for application to skin, in industrial or domestic settings, or in agriculture.

Herein are presented methods for incorporating a novel bacteriophage, CAM-21, that exhibits lytic activity against pathogenic E. coli, into food, food packaging, films, and quantum dot-based biosensors. The bacteriophage contains no genes associated with toxins, virulence factors, antibiotic resistance, lysogeny, or allergens. Methods are provided for encapsulating the bacteriophage with proteins and/or carbohydrate materials to enhance stability. Various films in which the bacteriophage are incorporated, and which similarly exhibit suppression of pathogenic E. coli, are also provided. Additionally, when conjugated with N-doped graphene quantum dots, CAM-21 enables biosensor development for E. coli detection in food products through altered photoluminescence emission spectra, and methods for making and using such biosensors are provided.

Provided is a bacteria-targeting capsid particle that is non-proliferative and has a high bactericidal effect. A capsid protein of a bacteriophage is prepared by a capsid nucleic acid element that synthesizes the capsid, which is divided from the bacteriophage genome and does not include a packaging region, but mainly includes the virion region. A bacteria-targeting capsid particle element (Bacteria-targeting capsid particle, B-CAP) is divided from a part of the bacteriophage genome other than the capsid nucleic acid element and includes a nucleic acid injection region, a replication region necessary for nucleic acid replication, and a packaging region. Although the assembled bacteria-targeting capsid particle (B-CAP) is non-proliferative, it can carry long DNA strands that give them new biological functions, such as bactericidal effects, or the other biological functions.