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Tiny Viruses Wage War on Deadly Cholera
25 May
Summary
- Bacteriophages, bacteria-eating viruses, are incredibly abundant.
- These viruses play a role in controlling cholera outbreaks and severity.
- Cholera bacteria and viruses engage in a constant evolutionary arms race.
Ernest Hankin's 1896 observations in Indian rivers hinted at an unseen force combating cholera bacteria. These observations foreshadowed the discovery of bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria, now known to be the most abundant biological entities on Earth.
These bacteria-eating viruses have accompanied cholera through its seven pandemics, with recent studies showing they rise during outbreaks and decrease bacterial populations, aiding in disease control. They even appear to mitigate cholera's severity within infected individuals.
New research published in Nature details this ongoing microscopic struggle. Cholera bacteria in Bangladesh rapidly adopted a new defense against phages, which then evolved new variants to overcome these defenses, showcasing a continuous evolutionary arms race.
Further genetic analysis of cholera samples from Bangladesh and India has illuminated the disease's spread, suggesting India, particularly Kolkata, frequently seeds global outbreaks more than Bangladesh, despite geographical proximity.
