Antibacterial efficacy of lytic phages against multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in bacteraemia mice models

Abstract

Abstract Background Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause a variety of infections in humans, such as burn wound infections and infections of the lungs, the bloodstream and surgical site infections. Nosocomial spread is often concurrent with high degrees of antibiotic resistance. Such resistant strains are difficult to treat, and in some cases, even reserved antibiotics are ineffective. A particularly promising therapy to combat infections of resistant bacteria is the deployment of bacteriophages, known as phage therapy. In this work, we evaluated the in vivo efficacy of two Pseudomonas phages in bacteremia mice models. For this study, non-neutropenic mice (BalB/C) were infected with P. aeruginosa AB030 strain and treated using two bacteriophages, AP025 and AP006. Results The results showed that a single dose of phages at higher concentrations, bacteria: phage at 1:10 and 1:100 were effective in eliminating the bloodstream infection and achieving 100% mice survival. Conclusion This study highlights the efficacy of using a single dose of phages to restore mice from bacteremia.

Keywords

• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Antibiotic resistance
• Phage therapy
• Bloodstream infections
• In vivo models
• Phage efficacy