You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Research letter
Phage therapy is highly effective against chronic lung infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa
  1. Elaine M Waters1,
  2. Daniel R Neill1,
  3. Basak Kaman1,
  4. Jaspreet S Sahota2,
  5. Martha R J Clokie2,
  6. Craig Winstanley1,
  7. Aras Kadioglu1
  1. 1Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  2. 2Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor Aras Kadioglu, Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Infection and Global Health, Ronald Ross Building, University of Liverpool, 8 West Derby Street, Liverpool, L69 7BE, UK; A.Kadioglu{at}liv.ac.uk

Abstract

With an increase in cases of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, alternative and adjunct treatments are needed, leading to renewed interest in bacteriophage therapy. There have been few clinically relevant studies of phage therapy against chronic lung infections. Using a novel murine model that uses a natural respiratory inhalation route of infection, we show that phage therapy is an effective treatment against chronic P. aeruginosa lung infections. We also show efficacy against P. aeruginosa in a biofilm-associated cystic fibrosis lung-like environment. These studies demonstrate the potential for phage therapy in the treatment of established and recalcitrant chronic respiratory tract infections.

  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Bacterial Infection
  • Respiratory Infection

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209265

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • CW and AK are co-senior authors

    • Contributors EMW and DRN designed and performed the in vivo experiments. EMW, BK and JSS performed the in vitro experiments. EMW, DRN, MRJC, CW and AK analysed the data. EMW, CW and AK wrote the manuscript. CW and AK conceived, designed and supervised the study and contributed equally throughout.

    • Funding Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.