{"id":221722,"date":"2025-09-11T04:36:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/rna-technology-hacks-into-phage-replication-offering-new-insights-into-molecular-interactions"},"modified":"2025-09-11T04:36:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:36:06","slug":"rna-technology-hacks-into-phage-replication-offering-new-insights-into-molecular-interactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/rna-technology-hacks-into-phage-replication-offering-new-insights-into-molecular-interactions","title":{"rendered":"RNA technology \u2018hacks\u2019 into phage replication, offering new insights into molecular interactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/rna-technology-hacks-into-phage-replication-offering-new-insights-into-molecular-interactions2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect bacteria. Using phages therapeutically could be very useful in fighting antibiotic-resistant pathogens, but the molecular interactions between phages and host bacteria are not yet sufficiently understood. J\u00f6rg Vogel\u2019s research group at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) in W\u00fcrzburg has now succeeded in specifically interfering with phage reproduction using a molecular tool called antisense oligomers (ASOs).<\/p>\n<p>According to the researchers, this innovative RNA technology offers new insights into the molecular world of phages and is expected to advance the development of future therapeutic applications. The study has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09499-6\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n<p>Like humans, bacteria have to cope with viruses\u2014known as bacteriophages, or phages for short. Phages invade bacteria, hijack their cellular machinery, multiply, and cause the bacterial cell to burst. This releases new phages, which then go on to infect other bacteria. Phages are harmless to humans because they target only bacteria. They are also quite selective: Most phages are specialized in infecting specific host bacteria, including bacterial pathogens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect bacteria. Using phages therapeutically could be very useful in fighting antibiotic-resistant pathogens, but the molecular interactions between phages and host bacteria are not yet sufficiently understood. J\u00f6rg Vogel\u2019s research group at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-cybercrime-malcode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}