Abstract
Nowadays, research on bacteriophage therapy and its potential use in combination with antibiotics has been gaining momentum. One hundred and ten oral Staphylococcus aureus isolates were phage-typed and their antibiotic resistance was determined by standard and molecular methods. The prevalence of MSSA and MRSA strains was 89.1% and 10.9%, respectively. Nearly all (91.8%) analyzed isolates, whether MSSA or MRSA, were susceptible to the phages used from the international set. The highest lytic activity showed phages 79 and 52 A from lytic group I. The predominant phage groups were mixed, the I+III group and a mixed group containing phages from at least three various lytic groups. S. aureus strains sensitive to phage group I were usually resistant to penicillin and susceptible to ciprofloxacin, whereas the strains typeable with group V or group V with the 95 phage were susceptible to most antibiotics. Epidemic CA-MRSA strains (SCCmecIV) of phage type 80/81 carried Panton–Valentine leucocidin genes. Considering the high sensitivity of oral S. aureus to the analyzed phages and the promising results of phage therapies reported by other authors, phage cocktails or phage-antibiotic combinations may potentially find applications in both the prevention and eradication of staphylococcal infections.
Highlights
The phenomenon of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents is currently one of the most emerging global public health problems, leading to treatment failures in many patient groups [1]
We decided to analyze the lytic activity of bacteriophages from various groups against oral S. aureus isolates in the context of their antibiotic resistance
The results of the present study suggest that phages from mixed groups, I+III and a mixed group containing phages belonging to at least three various lytic groups, showed the highest lytic activity against oral S. aureus
Summary
The phenomenon of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents is currently one of the most emerging global public health problems, leading to treatment failures in many patient groups [1]. The problem is evident in the case of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), which previously spread primarily in a hospital setting as hospital-acquired MRSA (HA-MRSA). The ineffectiveness of previously used antibiotic therapies warrants research on alternative treatments, such as phage therapy [5]. Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses capable of infecting and replicating inside bacterial cells, which leads to the destruction of the latter. Since their discovery, phages has raised hopes as a therapeutic option, but research on phage therapies has slowed down due to the growth of the global antibiotic market [6].
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