Abstract
Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) has emerged as one of the most troublesome pathogens in health care institutions. A. baumannii can cause a wide range of diseases in humans, including pneumonia and septicemia. Phage therapy has drawn great interest from medical researchers as a potential way to control infections by antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii. Using a pandrug-resistant clinical A. baumannii isolate ABZY9 as an indicator, we isolated a lytic phage Abp9 from hospital sewage. Abp9 belongs to myoviridae family and shows a wider host range of 12%. Abp9 contains a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 44,820 bp with a G + C content of 37.69%. The Abp9 genome contains 80 open reading frames, but lacks any known virulence genes or lysogen-formation genes. In a systemic A. baumannii infection mouse models, Abp9 treatment showed good therapeutic effects. We have also observed an excellent lytic activity against A. baumannii in biofilm form of growth in vitro. All of these suggest that Abp9 is a good candidate for the phage therapy against drug-resistant A. baumannii infections.
Highlights
A. baumannii is an aerobic bacillus of non-fermentative, Gram-negative bacteria
The viable bacterial counts of A. baumannii ABZY9 decreased from 5.4 × 108 CFU/mL to 4.5 × 106 CFU/mL
A lytic phage was isolated from hospital sewage with the host bacteria ABZY9, which was isolated from the catheter of a burn patient
Summary
A. baumannii is an aerobic bacillus of non-fermentative, Gram-negative bacteria. A. baumannii usually inhabits in soil, sewage, surface of medical appliances and hospital environments, from where it can cause bacteremia, pneumonia, cephalomeningitis and infections of urinary tract, skin and soft tissues, especially under immunosuppressive status (Maragakis and Perl, 2008; Peleg et al, 2008; Freire et al, 2016; Gong et al, 2016). A. baumannii is one of the leading pathogens causing hospital infection (Hauck et al, 2012; Bahador et al, 2015; Gong et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2016). In recent years, increasing attention was paid to A. baumannii as its ability to quickly develop antibiotic resistance. This adaption is mainly attributed though its plastic genome, which rapidly mutates when facing adversity and stress. A. baumannii could form robust biofilm with in the wound and on occlusive dressings, as well as on most abiotic surfaces. These characteristics make it difficult to eliminated A. baumannii completely. Characterization of Abp With Biofilm Lytic Activity the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorized multidrug resistance (MDR) A. baumannii as a serious threat
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
