Fig. 2

The structure and antibacterial action of phages. Only therapeutic research against bacterial infections uses virulent phages, also known as lytic phages, since they can grow in bacterial hosts, cause bacterial lysis during each infection cycle, and cannot lysogenizing their hosts. Clinical trials have used lytic phages that are either of the wild-type or modified varieties. When access to naturally occurring lytic phages is limited, engineered phages become necessary. When phages attach to specific receptors on host cells, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), teichoic acids, membrane proteins, or capsules, the lytic infection cycle starts. Following this, phage genetic material is translocated to the host, injected and used to hijack the host’s replication machinery to make phage offspring. Bacteriolysis is caused by the activation of the phage-encoded protein, and the offspring then leave the bacterial cell to start the cycle all over again on new hosts synthesize [35]