Resumen
Los bacteriófagos, o fagos, son virus que infectan exclusivamente bacterias. Desde mediados del siglo pasado han ayudado a los científicos a esclarecer preguntas fundamentales de la biología, como la naturaleza de la molécula que codifica los rasgos hereditarios, el reconocimiento enzimático de secuencias de ADN específicas, el proceso de replicación del ADN, la secuenciación del ADN, la regulación génica y los operones, entre otras. Hoy en día, debido a la creciente problemática de la resistencia a los antimicrobianos (RAM), ha resurgido el interés por su papel como controladores de poblaciones bacterianas causantes de infecciones, que ciertamente fue el primero que se les atribuyó al ser descubiertos y que se conoce con el nombre de fagoterapia. Este artículo presenta el estado actual del conocimiento sobre la biología básica de los bacteriófagos en lo pertinente a su aplicación en fagoterapia, la visión contemporánea de las interacciones fago-bacteria, así como los avances y retos para la fagoterapia en una sociedad amenazada por la resistencia antimicrobiana.
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