Evaluation of the in vitro and in vivo efficiency of in-feed bacteriophage cocktail application to control Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Enteritidis infection in broiler chicks.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Bacteriophage (BP) cocktail was partially resistant to different temperatures and pH values.The BP cocktail showed lytic effects on different Salmonella isolates.The BP cocktail reduced Salmonella colonization in the internal organs of broilers.

New role of bacteriophages in medical oncology.

Targeted treatment of cancer is one of the most paramount approaches in cancer treatment. Despite significant advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment methods, there are still significant limitations and disadvantages in the field, including high costs, toxicity, and unwanted damage to healthy cells. The phage display technique is an innovative method for designing carriers containing exogenic peptides with cancer diagnostic and therapeutic properties. Bacteriophages possess unique properties making them effective in cancer treatment. These characteristics include the small size enabling them to penetrate vessels; having no pathogenicity to mammals; easy manipulation of their genetic information and surface proteins to introduce vaccines and drugs to cancer tissues; lower cost of large-scale production; and greater stimulation of the immune system. Bacteriophages will certainly play a more effective role in the future of medical oncology; however, studies are in the early stages of conception and require more extensive research. We aimed in this review to provide some related examples and bring insights into the potential of phages as targeted vectors for use in cancer diagnosis and treatment, especially regarding their capability in gene and drug delivery to cancer target cells, determination of tumor markers, and vaccine design to stimulate anticancer immunity.

Combination therapy with CAR T cells and oncolytic viruses: a new era in cancer immunotherapy.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an encouraging and fast-growing platform used for the treatment of various types of tumors in human body. Despite the recent success of CAR T-cell therapy in hematologic malignancies, especially in B-cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the application of this treatment approach in solid tumors faced several obstacles resulted from the heterogeneous expression of antigens as well as the induction of immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Oncolytic virotherapy (OV) is a new cancer treatment modality by the use of competent or genetically engineered viruses to replicate in tumor cells selectively. OVs represent potential candidates to synergize the current setbacks of CAR T-cell application in solid tumors and then and overcome them. As well, the application of OVs gives researches the ability to engineer the virus with payloads in the way that it selectively deliver a specific therapeutic agents in tumor milieu to reinforce the cytotoxic activity of CAR T cells. Herein, we made a comprehensive review on the outcomes resulted from the combination of CAR T-cell immunotherapy and oncolytic virotherapy for the treatment of solid cancers. In the current study, we also provided brief details on some challenges that remained in this field and attempted to shed a little light on the future perspectives.

Droplet digital PCR of viral DNA/RNA, current progress, challenges, and future perspectives.

High-throughput droplet-based digital PCR (ddPCR) is a refinement of the conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. In ddPCR, DNA/RNA is encapsulated stochastically inside the microdroplets as reaction chambers. A small percentage of the reaction chamber contains one or fewer copies of the DNA or RNA. After PCR amplification, concentrations are determined based on the proportion of nonfluorescent partitions through the Poisson distribution. Some of the main features of ddPCR include high sensitivity and specificity, absolute quantification without a standard curve, high reproducibility, good tolerance to PCR inhibitor, and high efficacy compared to conventional molecular methods. These advantages make ddPCR a valuable addition to the virologist's toolbox. The following review outlines the recent technological advances in ddPCR methods and their applications in viral identification.

Oncolytic Viruses and Cancer, Do You Know the Main Mechanism?

The global rate of cancer has increased in recent years, and cancer is still a threat to human health. Recent developments in cancer treatment have yielded the understanding that viruses have a high potential in cancer treatment. Using oncolytic viruses (OVs) is a promising approach in the treatment of malignant tumors. OVs can achieve their targeted treatment effects through selective cell death and induction of specific antitumor immunity. Targeting tumors and the mechanism for killing cancer cells are among the critical roles of OVs. Therefore, evaluating OVs and understanding their precise mechanisms of action can be beneficial in cancer therapy. This review study aimed to evaluate OVs and the mechanisms of their effects on cancer cells.