Review Article
Potential Dual-Use of Bacteriophage in Bioterrorism and Biodefense
Huahao Fan and Yigang Tong*
Department of molecular microbiology, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, State Key Laboratory of Pathogens and Biosecurity, Beijing 100071, China
- *Corresponding Author:
- Yigang Tong
Department of molecular microbiology
Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology
State Key Laboratory of Pathogens and Biosecurity
Beijing 100071, China
E-mail: tong.yigang@gmail.com
Received Date: October 31, 2012; Accepted Date: November 20, 2012; Published Date: November 23, 2012
Citation: Fan H, Tong Y (2012) Potential Duel-Use of Bacteriophage Related Technologies in Bioterrorism and Biodefense. J Bioterr Biodef 3:121. doi:10.4172/2157-2526.1000121
Copyright: © 2012 Fan H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Bacteriophages are one of the simplest life forms on earth. They are natural killers of bacteria and exist in very large numbers in almost all natural habitats. With the ever-increasing threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, bacteriophages have regained the attention of biomedical scientists, but few reports have considered the use of bacteriophages in bioterrorism. This review describes the potential for bacteriophages to be used as bioterrorism agents or tools, as well as in counter-measures against bioterrorism.
