Abstract:More recently, the frequency of multi-drug-resistant strains has sped up with the misuse of antibiotics. Since the number of deaths caused by bacterial infection is increasing year by year and human health is facing a substantial challenge, it is urgent to develop novel antibacterial drugs. Bacteriophage lysin is a type of protein which synthesized by double-stranded DNA bacteriophage at the late stage of genome replication. It can hydrolyze the peptidoglycan in the bacterial cell wall to release the progeny bacteriophage and kill the bacteria. Bacteriophage lysin is derived from bacteriophages and has a unique advantage of evolutionary selection. It is not only efficient and fast quickly kill multi-drug resistant bacteria, and it is not easy to cause bacteria to develop new drug resistance. Because of its highly efficient bactericidal capacity and high host specialization, bacteriophage lysin has become one candidate for a new generation of antibacterial agents. A review on the structure and mode of action of lysins and their application were presented.
