Benefits of Combined Phage–Antibiotic Therapy for the Control of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: A Literature Review

Abstract

With the increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics, more and more therapeutic failures are being reported worldwide. The market for antibiotics is now broken due to the high cost of developing new molecules. A promising solution to bacterial resistance is combined phage–antibiotic therapy, a century-old method that can potentiate existing antibiotics by prolonging or even restoring their activity against specific bacteria. The aim of this literature review was to provide an overview of different phage–antibiotic combinations and to describe the possible mechanisms of phage–antibiotic synergy.

Keywords

• phage therapy
• antibiotic therapy
• bacteriophage
• synergy
• combined activity