Study of the Interactions Between Bacteriophage phiIPLA-RODI and Four Chemical Disinfectants for the Elimination of Staphylococcus aureus Contamination

Abstract

Bacteriophages are currently considered as a promising alternative to antibiotics and disinfectants. However, the use of phages in different clinical and industrial settings will involve their exposure to other disinfectants. As a result, the outcome of the phage treatment will depend on two aspects derived from such interactions. On the one hand, the susceptibility of the phage to disinfectants at the concentrations used for disinfection and at lower residual concentrations needs to be determined. Additionally, the existence of synergistic or antagonistic interactions between phages and disinfectants would also affect the potential success of phage biocontrol applications. Here, we tested these effects for the antistaphylococcal phage phiIPLA-RODI by using four different disinfectants: benzalkonium chloride, triclosan, chlorhexidine and hydrogen peroxide. Our results highlight the differences between disinfectants regarding their effect on phage survival and antimicrobial properties. For instance, our data suggests that, out of the four disinfectants used, benzalkonium chloride would be the most adequate to use in settings where phages are to be applied. Nonetheless, this preliminary analysis grants the need for further studies with a larger number of disinfectants for the development of a phiIPLA-RODI-based product.

Chestnut Honey and Bacteriophage Application to Control Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli Biofilms: Evaluation in an ex vivo Wound Model

“…The E. coli phage on the other hand was chosen taking advantage of its known morphologic and genomic characteristics, and also due to its known survival on two polyflora honeys (Oliveira et al, 2017 ) during the first 6 h. In this work, chestnut honey partially or completely destroyed both phages after 24 h of exposure resulting in phage concentrations below the limit of detection. The main characteristics of honey that seem to cause loss in phage viability are its low pH (between 3.2 and 4.5), high sugar content (about 80%) that can cause an osmotic shock, possible presence of proteases, and the slow release of hydrogen peroxide when dissolved in water (about 1 mmol.L −1 ) (Rossano et al, 2012 ; Agún et al, 2018 ). Nevertheless, this late destruction of phage particles, only at 24 h, grants them capacity to complete several infection cycles before destruction since both phages have relatively short latent and burst periods (Figure 2 ).…”

Role of Bacteriophages in the Implementation of a Sustainable Dairy Chain

“…Therefore, the outcome of the phage treatment might depend on the susceptibility of the phage to the biocides as well as the existence of synergistic or antagonistic interactions between phages and these chemical agents. For instance, Agun et al (2018) determined that benzalkonium chloride would be the most adequate disinfectant to apply in combination with the staphylococcal phage phiIPLA-RODI, as this phage can survive at the concentrations of the biocide generally used to inhibit bacterial growth and no antagonism was observed between both antimicrobials.…”

Don’t Shut the Stable Door after the Phage Has Bolted—The Importance of Bacteriophage Inactivation in Food Environments

“…This includes active substances such as potassium peroxymonosulfate, ethoxylated nonylphenol, Triclosan, chlorhexidine diacetate, Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QACs) such as benzalkonium chloride or ionic liquids, Chloramine-T and monochloramine, which have drawn the interest of research groups [41,169,171,173,174,175,176,177,178]. More information regarding the regulation of these substances is included in the supplemental material of this review (see Table S4).…”

“…Hosseinidoust et al [36] concluded that a combined use with antibiotics or disinfectants could be a promising strategy to minimize the risk of development of phage-resistant mutants. As a result, different studies have already investigated the influence of antibiotics and disinfectants on the bacterial-phage-system, whereas synergistic effects of antibiotics [39,40] as well as antagonistic effects of disinfectants [41] on this ecosystem were observed. More often, however, the use of phage mixtures and rotations are discussed to avoid or at least limit the development of resistant mutants [30,42].…”