Isolation and Characterization of Bacteriophages as Potential Alternative Therapy for Infections Caused by Multidrug-Resistant Gram-negative Pathogens

Abstract

No shadow of a doubt that the emerging of resistance of Gram-negative nosocomial infections rings the bell of danger, especially after they proved their resistance against carbapenems which was the last resort of antibiotics. In recent years, researchers have changed their destinations to start studying bacteriophages after a decade of no new classes of antibiotics which were known as “dry pipeline”. This study aims to investigate the potential of using lytic bacteriophages as an alternative therapy to antibiotics for MDR infections caused by biofilm-producing Gram-negative bacteria “Klebsiella pneumoniae”, “Acinetobacter baumannii” and “Pseudomonas aeruginosa”, 30 clinical bacterial isolates for each bacterial species were collected from hospitals in Cairo, Egypt and identified phenotypically, then tested for their resistance against antibiotics using Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. Liquid sewage samples were collected from sewage stations and hospitals around Egypt then were processed without filtration or centrifugation and incubated with the bacteria to propagate the phages present, furthermore, phages were hunted using spotting assay, isolated and purified by serial dilution 7 times.