Work

Dynamics of Encapsulated Bacteriophage in the Gastrointestinal Tract

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Bacteriophage therapy consists in treating bacterial infections using viruses (bacteriophages) that selectively kill bacteria. Since bacteriophages degrade relatively fast in acidic environments, such as those found in the stomach of vertebrates, treatment of pathogenic enterobacteria can be enhanced by artificially encapsulating bacteriophages in microcapsules and, consequently, making them more resistant to natural degradation. Inside the microcapsules, however, bacteriophages are not able to infect bacteria, so efficient encapsulation requires microcapsules to be relatively permeable to the bacteriophages they carry. This permeability quality is somehow antagonistic to the protective role that microcapsules must also have, and thus, a trade‐off does exist between them. In this article, we propose a mathematical model to study this phenomena in different biological scenarios.

Source: Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences

DOI: 10.1002/mma.70342

Authors: Carles Barril, Xavier Bardina, Sílvia Cuadrado

Institutions: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Centre de Recerca Matemàtica

Language: English

Topic: Bacteriophages and microbial interactions

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Agencia Estatal de Investigación

Awards: G3681338154, G84477964