Phage Therapy: Experiments Using Animal Infection Models
Shigenobu Matsuzaki, Jumpei Uchiyama, Iyo Takemura-Uchiyama and Masanori Daibata
from: Phage Therapy: Current Research and Applications (Edited by: Jan Borysowski, Ryszard Międzybrodzki and Andrzej Górski). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2014)
Abstract
Phage therapy is a method of controlling bacterial infections by bacteriophage (phage) administration. Many animal experiments have been performed to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of phage therapy. Bacterial species that are currently prevalent in clinical settings have been selected as the targets of experimental phage therapy. These include Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus including methicillin-resistant strains (MRSA) and Enterococcus species including vancomycin-resistant strains (VRE), as well as Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (and its relatives), Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumanii. The infections selected have included meningitis, lung infections, wound infections, urinary tract infections, gastrointestinal infections, and septicemia, all of which are clinically relevant. In most animal experiments, phage therapy has been demonstrated to be very effective and safe. Furthermore, phage therapy has been shown to be effective in immunosuppressed and diabetic animals, as well as in a murine model of chronic infection. Methods to overcome the problem of anti-phage antibodies and of phage therapy against intracellular bacteria such as Mycobacterium species have also been demonstrated. Moreover, genetically modified phages, which can kill the host bacteria without lysing them, have also been developed, and their efficacy has been demonstrated. This accumulated evidence encourages us to develop phage therapy systems for the future treatment of human infections read more ...
