A UK food chemist has found a way to explode the deadly food-poisoning bacteria, Listeria and Clostridium, using agents found in viruses; these agents could also represent a future alternative to antibiotic treatment in some medical applications.

Mike Gasson, from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, discovered the potential of viruses while researching flavour development in cheese in the early 1990s.

Now, with the help of Profos AG, a German company specialising in bacterial viruses and antimicrobial agents, and Plant Bioscience, a technology transfer company on the Norwich Research Park, the germ of an idea is translating into practical technology. A new, exclusive worldwide licence marks a first step towards commercialisation.

Viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages, produce bacteria-bursting enzymes called lysins. According to Gasson, the lysins covered in the licence can be used to detect or kill selectively Listeria and Clostridium, two virulent bacteria with serious food safety implications.

Listeria can cause a variety of diseases, including meningitis in newborn children and septicaemia and meningitis in adults. Clostridium difficile can cause diarrhoea in patients receiving antibiotic treatment the bacterium seizes the opportunity to infect provided by disruption of naturally occurring bowel bacteria.

'With the demand for commercial alternatives to antibiotics growing in response to the need to tackle bacterial antibiotic resistance, it is also possible that bacteriophage lysins could replace antibiotics in some applications in the future. Unlike antibiotics, this technology provides a precision tool, designed to kill specific bacteria while leaving other micro-organisms intact,' says Gasson. 

Hamish Kidd