Research

Streptococcus suis is one of the most important pathogens in the porcine industry and an emerging zoonotic agent that infects humans, causing high fatality rates.

Streptococcus suis is an emerging zoonotic pathogen responsible for septicemia with or without septic shock, meningitis and other less common infections in humans. It is also one of the most important pathogens in the porcine industry. No effective vaccine for S. suis is available and isolates with increasing antibiotic multiresistance are emerging worldwide.

In a recent study, scientists of the IQFR and the CIB have constructured a chimeric and robust enzybiotic, Csl2, directed to fight S. suis infections by fusing the catalytic domain of the Cpl-7 endolysin from the Cp-7 pneumococcal phage to the CW_7 repeats of the LySMP lysin from an S. suis phage. Csl2 efficiently kills S. suis when growth as plaktonic cultures or biofilms, and protects against S. suis infections in vivo. A certain activity against a few streptococci of the mitis group was also demonstrated.

R Vázquez, M Domenech, M Iglesias-Bexiga, M Menéndez, P García (2017). Csl2, a novel chimeric bacteriophage lysin to fight infections caused by Streptococcus suis, an emerging zoonotic pathogen. Sci. Rep. 7(1):16506. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16736-0.