Publication details
Comparison of two phages for potencial commercial use – genomes, host spectrum and declaration of nontoxicity
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | The bacterial species of the Staphylococcus genus are important human and animal pathogens which cause severe infectious diseases. The most pathogenic species Staphylococcus aureus is the major causative agent of numerous hospital- and community-acquired infections. The increasing number of pathogenic strains resistant to antimicrobial drugs is a serious problem for public health that can be solved by phage therapy as a suitable alternative to antibiotics treatment. One of the disadvantages of phages is that compared to wide-spectrum antibiotics phages act on species or strains only. Using polyvalent bacteriophages or preparation of phage cocktails with broad host range is a suitable solution for this problem of fighting unwanted bacteria in medicine, food industry, biotechnology and agriculture. Two anti-staphylococcal phages MB401 and MB402 were chosen for a potential synergic use in a cocktail. Genomes of these phages were sequenced and alignment shows that they share more than 97% homology. Only few rearrangements in genome influenced host spectrum of these phages. Lytic spectrum of bacteriophages was tested on 53 clinical isolates of S. aureus from Czech hospitals including MRSA strains. 24 strains were sensitive due to synergic effect of both phages. In the future we are planning to isolate more phages which could extend host spectrum and add them into the phage cocktail. A number of analyses is required for commercial products especially in veterinary and human medicine. An important feature is declaration of nontoxicity of phage lysate. Phages MB401 and MB402 were propagated on well-defined bacterial strain which did not contain any known prophages, genes for toxins, virulence factors etc. and that increases the probability of a safe final product. Local dermal tolerance and acute dermal toxicity studies were performed with phage lysate on rats and rabbits and results confirm that phage lysate is nontoxic. |