Potential of Therapeutic Bacteriophages in Nosocomial Infection Management

Abstract

Nosocomial infections (NIs) are hospital-acquired infections which pose a high healthcare burden worldwide. The impact of NIs is further aggravated by the global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Conventional treatment and disinfection agents are often insufficient to catch up with the increasing AMR and tolerance of the pathogenic bacteria. This has resulted in a need for alternative approaches and raised new interest in therapeutic bacteriophages (phages). In contrast to the limited clinical options available against AMR bacteria, the extreme abundance and biodiversity of phages in nature provides an opportunity to establish an ever-expanding phage library that collectively provides sustained broad-spectrum and poly microbial coverage. Given the specificity of phage-host interactions, phage susceptibility testing can serve as a rapid and cost-effective method for bacterial subtyping. The library can also provide a database for routine monitoring of nosocomial infections as a prelude to preparing ready-to-use phages for patient treatment and environmental sterilization. Despite the remaining obstacles for clinical application of phages, the establishment of phage libraries, pre-stocked phage vials prepared to good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, and pre-optimized phage screening technology will facilitate efforts to make phages available as modern medicine. This may provide the breakthrough needed to demonstrate the great potential in nosocomial infection management.

Activity of Phage–Lactoferrin Mixture against Multi Drug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Biofilms

“…Bacteriophages are an effective tool against biofilms formed by nosocomial, which are often multi-drug-resistant, strains of bacteria [ 20 , 21 ]. This has been proven by numerous studies by various research groups [ 8 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Phage therapy for secondary bacterial infections with COVID-19

“…By taking advantage of the material flow (from lower BSL zones to higher BSL zones) and the reverse information flow, qualified phage vials can be rapidly selected and delivered to the inpatient ward for phage therapy. For epidemiological purposes, bacterial isolates were routinely phage-typed and this database is also useful for the preparation of adequate therapeutic phages and the assembly of fixed-composition, broad-spectrum phage cocktails for emergency use ( Figure 1 ) [ 31 • ].…”

Phage therapy for pulmonary infections: lessons from clinical experiences and key considerations

“…Although the benefits of personalised phage therapy are clear, on-demand phage product manufacturing is a time- and resource-intensive procedure, financially problematic on a larger scale, and probably more attractive for academic institutions focused on small-scale production than larger volume manufacturing by biopharmaceutical companies [ 114 , 115 ]. One of the main drawbacks of personalised therapies is that existing pharmaceutical legislation is insufficiently adapted to the regulation of dynamic personalised therapies with varying compositions.…”