The concept of HM781-36B enzybiotics is very promising in this regard [4]. The term enzybiotic is a hybrid word from “enzyme” and “antibiotic”

that has been coined to designate bacteriophage lytic enzymes endowed with the capacity to degrade bacterial cell wall and with antibacterial click here potential [5]. The concept of enzybiotics was subsequently shown to be wider than first though, and nowadays it refers to all enzymes that are able to cause microbial cell death (endolysins, bacteriocins, autolysins and lysozymes) and regardless of their origin (including antifungal enzymes, antimicrobial peptides and enzymes that block peptidoglycan layer synthesis) [6]. Alternative names used with respect to enzybiotics are lytic enzymes or peptidoglycan hydrolases, as enzymatic cleavage of bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan (resulting in cell lysis) represents Selleckchem BYL719 their major mode of action. Group of peptidoglycan hydrolases consist of diverse enzymes that can be obtained from various sources. Major groups of enzybiotics include endolysins (from phages) [7, 8]; autolysins and bacteriocins (produced by bacteria) [9, 10]; and lysozymes (from various

organisms) [11]. Amongst them, the phage endolysins held and still hold the special position as ultimate enzybiotics. Endolysins or lysins are enzymes encoded by double-stranded DNA bacteriophages, actively produced toward the end of the phage lytic cycle to break down Progesterone the

bacterial cell wall for phage progeny release [12]. They target the integrity of the cell wall and attack major bonds in the peptidoglycan. Depending on their enzymatic properties, lysins fall into five major classes: (i) N-acetylmuramoyl-l-alanine amidases; (ii) endopeptidases; (iii) N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase; (iv) N-acetyl-β-d-muramidases (lysozymes) and (v) lytic transglycosylases [13]. Numerous experimental studies performed in vitro and in vivo on animal models have proved enzybiotics as highly effective antibacterial agents against variety of bacterial pathogens [14]. Moreover, other important aspects of enzybiotic therapy were examined, e.g. immunogenicity of enzybiotics [15], adverse effects and emergence of resistance [8, 12]. Bioinformatics is playing an important role in many aspects of drug discovery, drug assessment and drug development [16]. Biological databases covering genomic, proteomic and functional information have become significant in antimicrobial drug research. All information about representative enzybiotics and outcomes of their therapeutic application are dispersed among scientific papers and various biological databases. Recently, EnzyBase database has been published [17], collecting references and description of enzybiotics present in UniProt/Swiss-Prot database.