Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense
Open Access

Review Article

Bacteriophages against Biothreat Bacteria: Diagnostic, Environmental and Therapeutic Applications

Andrey A Filippov^*, Kirill V Sergueev and Mikeljon P Nikolich

Department of Emerging Bacterial Infections, Bacterial Diseases Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Andrey A Filippov
Department of Emerging Bacterial Infections
Bacterial Diseases Branch
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
E-mail: andrey.filippov@amedd.army.mil

Received Date: December 27, 2012; Accepted Date: January 18, 2013; Published Date: January 21, 2013

Citation: Filippov AA, Sergueev KV, Nikolich MP (2013) Bacteriophages against Biothreat Bacteria: Diagnostic, Environmental and Therapeutic Applications. J Bioterr Biodef S3:010. doi:10.4172/2157-2526.S3-010

Copyright: © 2013 Filippov AA, 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.

Plague, anthrax and brucellosis are severe bacterial infections presenting a serious threat to public health. Their causative agents can be weaponized and a number of drug-resistant strains have been described. This requires improvement of existing and development of new methods of diagnostics, strain characterization, prophylaxis and therapy of these infections. This review article focuses on lytic bacteriophages (phages) active against Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis and Brucella including the uses of phages for diagnostics, strain typing, specific decontamination, and antibacterial therapy.