Stability of bacteriophages in burn wound care products

Abstract

Bacteriophages could be used along with burn wound care products to enhance antimicrobial pressure during treatment. However, some of the components of the topical antimicrobials that are traditionally used for the prevention and treatment of burn wound infection might affect the activity of phages. Therefore, it is imperative to determine the counteraction of therapeutic phage preparations by burn wound care products before application in patients. Five phages, representatives of two morphological families (Myoviridae and Podoviridae) and active against 3 common bacterial burn wound pathogens (Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) were tested against 13 different products commonly used in the treatment of burn wounds. The inactivation of the phages was quite variable for different phages and different products. Majority of the anti-infective products affected phage activity negatively either immediately or in the course of time, although impact was not always significant. Products with high acidity had the most adverse effect on phages. Our findings demonstrate that during combined treatment the choice of phages and wound care products must be carefully defined in advance.

Using Bacteriophages as a Trojan Horse to the Killing of Dual-Species Biofilm Formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

“…Over the last years, bacteriophages have been extensively studied as therapeutic agents alone or in conjunction with other therapeutics. In vivo models (Tagliaferri et al, 2019) and a few clinical trials (Merabishvili et al, 2017;Furfaro et al, 2018;Jault et al, 2019) have demonstrated effectiveness of phage treatment against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus infections, without any reported adverse effects. However, little has been published about polymicrobial biofilm infections.…”

Bacteriophages for Chronic Wound Treatment: From Traditional to Novel Delivery Systems

“…Topical phage and phage-based formulations alone have been useful in the treatment of skin diseases, but some factors can affect their delivery. For instance, the thicker ointment and paste formulations may have added components that can limit phage movement but also the presence of preservative agents in creams and ointments, particularly those with an acidic pH, can negatively impact the effectiveness of phages [159,160].…”

Semi-Solid and Solid Dosage Forms for the Delivery of Phage Therapy to Epithelia

“…These commercial products included creams, gels, suspensions and ointments, and assays involved the dilution of these products 1:1 with phage suspensions. Therefore, the study did not investigate the capacity of intact semi-solid preparations to deliver viable phages, but did demonstrate that some of the active ingredients in the commercial products, such as antibacterial agents, and in particular, acidic compounds, had an adverse effect on phage viability [ 34 ]. While this study provided important insight into possible issues when formulating phages into commercial preparations for bacterial control, it highlighted the potential difficulty in dissociating phage effects from other antibacterial effects when such formulations are used.…”