Background: Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus. Antibioticresistant Staphylococcus aureus is frequently isolated from DFU infections. Bacteriophages ("phages") represent an alternative or adjunct treatment to antibiotic therapy. Here we describe the efficacy of AB-SA01, a cocktail of three S. aureus Myoviridae phages, made to current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) standards, and which has undergone two phase I trials, in treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) S. aureus infections.
Methods:Using a diabetic mouse model, bilateral six-millimetre excisional deep skin wounds inflicted on the dorsum of Balb/c mice were infected with 6.7 log 10 colony-forming units (CFU) of clinical MDR S. aureus. Infections were treated topically with AB-SA01, or controls: saline, or saline plus intraperitoneal (IP) vancomycin. Bacterial load and wound healing parameters were used to assess treatment efficacy.Results: Wounds of saline-treated mice showed no healing, but expanded and became inflamed, ulcerated, and suppurating. In contrast, AB-SA01 treatment decreased the bacterial load with efficacy similar or superior to vancomycin treatment. In phage-treated mice, wound healing was seen similar to vancomycin treatment. No adverse effects related to the application of phages were observed.
Conclusion:Our results suggest that topical phage cocktail treatment may be effective in treating antibiotic-resistant S. aureus DFU infections.