How Phages Overcome the Challenges of Drug Resistant Bacteria in Clinical Infections

Abstract

Nowadays the most important problem in the treatment of bacterial infections is the appearance of MDR (multidrug-resistant), XDR (extensively drug-resistant) and PDR (pan drug-resistant) bacteria and the scarce prospects of producing new antibiotics. There is renewed interest in revisiting the use of bacteriophage to treat bacterial infections. The practice of phage therapy, the application of phages to treat bacterial infections, has been around for approximately a century. Phage therapy relies on using lytic bacteriophages and purified phage lytic proteins for treatment and lysis of bacteria at the site of infection. Current research indicates that phage therapy has the potential to be used as an alternative to antibiotic treatments. It is noteworthy that, whether phages are used on their own or combined with antibiotics, phages are still a promising agent to replace antibiotics. So, this review focuses on an understanding of challenges of MDR, XDR, and PDR bacteria and phages mechanism for treating bacterial infections and the most recent studies on potential phages, cocktails of phages, and enzymes of lytic phages in fighting these resistant bacteria.

Keywords: MDR; PDR; XDR; bacteriophage; drug resistant.

Figure 1

A schematic representation of a bacterial cell, with the different cellular processes that are influenced by phage or phage proteins. 1; CRISPR 2; RNA Polymerase 3; Metabolism Pathway 4; Peptidoglycan 5; Flagella 6; pili 7; DNA 8; Ribosomes 9; RNA degrade 10; Sec Secretion System.