Isolation, characterization and therapeutic evaluation of a new Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 lysing Acinetobacter baumannii

Xun Tian; Xiang Liu; Jianhong Zhou; Li Wang; Qinrong Wang; Xiaolan Qi; Jiayu Liu; Dailin Zhao; Tom Hsiang; Yinhui Jiang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379400

Isolation, characterization and therapeutic evaluation of a new Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 lysing Acinetobacter baumannii

Front Microbiol. 2024 Apr 30:15:1379400. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379400. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Xun Tian^#^{1

2}, Xiang Liu^#^{1

2

3}, Jianhong Zhou^{1

2}, Li Wang^{1

2}, Qinrong Wang^{1

2}, Xiaolan Qi^{1

2}, Jiayu Liu⁴, Dailin Zhao⁵, Tom Hsiang⁶, Yinhui Jiang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Endemic and Ethnic Diseases, Guizhou Medical University, Ministry of Education, Guiyang, China.
² Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
³ Guizhou Provincial Center for Clinical Laboratory, Guiyang, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Medical Insects, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
⁵ Institute of Plant Protection, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang, China.
⁶ School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that easily resists currently available antibiotics. Phages are considered alternative therapeutic agents to conventional antibiotics for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacteria. We isolated an Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 from underground sewage in a residential area of Guiyang City in China. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 has an icosahedral head attached to a tail. This phage infects A. baumannii strain GY-4, and was found to have a short latent period of 5 min and with a burst size of 189 particles per infected host cell. Additionally, Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 remained stable at different concentrations of chloroform and varying pH levels and temperatures. Based on SDS-PAGE analysis, it contained 14 proteins with molecular weights ranging from 12 to 125 kDa. The double-strand (ds) DNA genome of Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 consisted of 41,242 bp with a GC content of 39.4%. It contained 50 open reading frames (ORFs), of which 29 ORFs had identified functions, but no virulence-related genes, antibiotic-resistance genes, or tRNAs were found. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 was a new phage in the Friunavirus genus. Acinetobacter virus Abgy202141 also showed the ability to prevent A. baumannii infections in the Galleria mellonella in vivo model.

Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii; biological characteristics; genome analysis; phage; phage therapy.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32000017 and 31660012); Guizhou Provincial Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project for high-level overseas Talents (2022) No. 15; Guizhou Provincial Natural Foundation [ZK(2021)zhongdian030]; Excellent Young Talents Plan of Guizhou Medical University (2023) No. 101; Department of Education of Guizhou Province (CN) [KY(2021)313]; Guizhou Provincial Natural Science Foundation [ZK(2022) Key Program 039]; Guizhou Science and Technology Support Project “Research and Demonstration of Key Technologies for Ecological Prevention and Control of Major diseases of Lily with Simultaneous Use of Medicine and Food in Guizhou” [Guizhou Science Cooperation Support (2020) No. 4Y115].