Experimental Phage Therapy on Multiple Drug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection in Mice

With the rising prevalence of multiple-antibiotic resistant-bacteria (MDRs) and the lack of development of new antibiotics by the pharmaceutical industries, there is an urgent need to develop novel approaches to combat MDRs, especially Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Bacteriophage therapy has been applied for decades as a means of treating bacterial infections in some parts of the world and numerous encouraging results have been documented. Here, we present evidence in murine models that animals infected with MDRs P. aeruginosa can be successfully treated with specific bacteriophages that target these MDRs microbes. We utilized three different forms of bacterial infections on Stage II and III wound on deep lower back of animals; deep wound infection and chronic infection treated the each of the infections by respective dermal application of phages. Furthermore, we successfully tested phage therapy for both acute and chronic infections. We evaluate the potential use of lytic phage on wound contraction; we observed drastic changes on the wounds after 24-hours of phage application. Pros and cons of phage therapy to treat human MDRs are discussed. Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals J o u r n al o f A nti virals & Antitrovira l s