Assessment of the microbiome during bacteriophage therapy in combination with systemic antibiotics to treat a case of staphylococcal device infection

Abstract

Background Infectious bacterial diseases exhibiting increasing resistance to antibiotics are a serious global health issue. Bacteriophage therapy is an anti-microbial alternative to treat patients with serious bacterial infections. However, the impacts to the host microbiome in response to clinical use of phage therapy are not well understood. Results Our paper demonstrates a largely unchanged microbiota profile during 4 weeks of phage therapy when added to systemic antibiotics in a single patient with Staphylococcus aureus device infection. Metabolomic analyses suggest potential indirect cascading ecological impacts to the host (skin) microbiome. We did not detect genomes of the three phages used to treat the patient in metagenomic samples taken from saliva, stool, and skin; however, phages were detected using endpoint-PCR in patient serum. Conclusion Results from our proof-of-principal study supports the use of bacteriophages as a microbiome-sparing approach to treat bacterial infections.

Isolation, Characterization, and Genomic Analysis of Three Novel E. coli Bacteriophages That Effectively Infect E. coli O18

“…In addition, there are some extra advantages of phage therapy compared to antibiotics as phages are naturally available in the environment, and are easy and cheap to produce [ 11 ]. Moreover, they are particular to bacterial targets without adverse impacts on normal microbiota as antibiotics do [ 12 , 13 ]. The studies on bacteriophages stopped, though, except for the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, due to the widespread availability of antibiotics at that time [ 14 ].…”

Tracking the phage trends: A comprehensive review of applications in therapy and food production

“…Similarly, Kao et al (2019) observed that lyophilized fecal microbiota transplantation (LFMT) in patients suffering from recurrent C. difficile infection (RCDI) eliminated the symptoms of infection and restored a healthy gut microbiome. In a recent report by Mu et al (2021), no change in the gut microflora of a patient during 1 month of phage therapy was observed. However, despite being a predominant component of the gut microbiome, there is still sparse knowledge about the actual effects of phages on gut modulation.…”

Low Immunogenicity of Intravesical Phage Therapy for Urogenitary Tract Infections

“…Our recent review presents the current status and perspectives of PT [ 1 ]. In the past decade, interest in PT has rapidly grown and reports on its successful use in treating multidrug-resistant bacterial infections are published almost every month [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Likewise, several reviews on PT are published each year.…”