Viruses supply arms for the war on bacteria

摘要

In the hunt for weapons against bacteria that cause disease, doctors have turned to their age-old adversaries—viruses. Vincent Fischetti and his team at Rockefeller University in New York have isolated an enzyme from a bacteriophage—a type of virus that infects bacteria. The enzyme kills Streptococcus pneumoniae, a potentially dangerous bacterium that lurks in the noses and throats of half the human population.