"We are not something you usually talk about. You fear the influenza virus. You are terrified by the HIV. But we remain in the background. Always. The never-talked-about clan of viruses. We slaughter your enemies, the pathogenic bacteria. We are the future heroes of the world. We cause no harm to you humans. In fact, we can rescue the human race from the wrath of the bacteria. Worship us. make us your weapons in your battle against the multidrug resistant bacteria. We will stand up strong, fight your enemy, our prey. "
A lot of interest has been taken to study viruses that are directly responsible for causing diseases in plants, humans and other animals. A significant progress has been made in the battle against these viruses, and it is very obvious that the battle is a never ending one. As the viruses equip themselves with better genomes to creep into the human system, or the animal and plant world, humans struggle harder to overpower the tiny beasts.
But the phages have not been given their due importance. Their power has been underestimated. They've not been explored as much as they deserve to be. Though a lot of research is being carried out on phage therapy and other applications, it still remains a notch below the levels where it can be widely used as a preferred option. Despite a long history of phage exploitation, no drastic progress has been observed in the science of phage utilisation.
Apart from using them as antibacterial agents, they can be used as novel bionanomedicine tools. Firstly, the virus particles possess tropism for specific target host cells. For example, bacteriophages infect specific bacterial strains and cannot infect animal cells or interfere with eukaryotic animal cell cycles. Secondly, viruses possess genetic and proteomic information in one body. All of the genetic information precisely defines the chemical, physical and biological structures of the viruses. This means that alteration in genetic information would directly change the properties of that virus. In addition, viruses can produce identical copies of these materials through the host cell amplification process. This would make it easier to use them as bionanometerial, because they would self-synthesise more bionanomaterial all by themselves. Thirdly, we can utilize recombinant DNA technology and construct large combinatorial libraries through the insertion of random DNA sequences into specific locations in the viral genomes. We can search for the desired protein information through the directed evolutionary screening process. Therefore, we can design a novel virus that possesses multiple functional motifs and therapeutic materials simultaneously through genetic engineering. Therefore, gene- or protein-based therapeutic materials can be easily incorporated and delivered to specific desirable targets. Lastly, some viruses possess long-rod or filamentous shapes that enable them to self-assemble into ordered films and fibre structures. These nanofibrous features can be used for the construction of tissue-like nanostructures with specific physical, chemical and mechanical cues. (Rebecca Farr and et. al., 2013)
This web portal is a tiny attempt to throw more light on the world of novel applications of phages.