Potential Solutions Using Bacteriophages against Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria

Abstract

Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically infect a bacterial host. They play a great role in the modern biotechnology and antibiotic-resistant microbe era. Since the discovery of phages, their application as a control agent has faced challenges that made antibiotics a better fit for combating pathogenic bacteria. Recently, with the novel sequencing technologies providing new insight into the nature of bacteriophages, their application has a second chance to be used. However, novel challenges need to be addressed to provide proper strategies for their practical application. This review focuses on addressing these challenges by initially introducing the nature of bacteriophages and describing the phage-host-dependent strategies for phage application. We also describe the effect of the long-term application of phages in natural environments and other bacterial communities. Overall, this review gathered crucial information for the future application of phages. We predict the use of phages will not be the only control strategy against pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, more studies must be done for low-risk control methods against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

Recurrent ESBL Escherichia coli Urosepsis in a Pediatric Renal Transplant Patient Treated With Antibiotics and Bacteriophage Therapy

“…Unlike antibiotics, phages replicate at the site of infection if susceptible bacteria are present. 5 Phage self-replication promotes the resolution of infections and can prevent recurrent infections. 6 There is growing evidence with using phage therapy to successfully treat UTIs in the literature.…”

Bacteriophages Therapy: Exploring Their Promising Role in Microbiome Modulation and Combatting Antibiotic Resistance

“…For example, researchers are exploring next-generation sequencing technologies to identify and isolate new bacteriophage strains from diverse environments, such as soil, water, and even extreme environments like hot springs or the deep ocean. Additionally, they are working on developing novel methods for phage amplification and propagation [63].…”

“…such as efficient induction of prophages from bacterial populations and the use of lysogenic conversion. These advancements will ensure a more continuous and reliable supply of phages, ultimately improving their potential as therapeutics [63].…”

Bacteriophage therapy for drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections

“…Thus, there exists an urgent necessity to discover new alternatives to antibiotics for combating infections, such as plant extracts, honey, propolis, synbiotics, antimicrobial peptides, vaccines, antibodies, pattern recognition receptors, probiotics, metals and antimicrobial enzymes ( Gupta and Sharma, 2022 ; Roque-Borda et al., 2022 ; MaChado et al., 2023 ). Meanwhile, phage therapy has been rekindled and is gaining renewed attention and development ( Rahimi-Midani et al., 2021 ). Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet authorized any phage products for clinical use, numerous studies and phase I/II clinical trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of phage therapy ( Bao et al., 2020 ; Mulzer et al., 2020 ; Petrovic Fabijan et al., 2020 ; Rubalskii et al., 2020 ; Dedrick et al., 2021 ; Johri et al., 2021 ; Wu et al., 2021 ).…”