Conference 2021 Poster Presentation

 

Project title

Combating antimicrobial resistance: a review of bacteriophage therapy in clinical setting

 

Authors and Affiliations

Tsz Yuen Au1 & Chanika Assavarittirong1

1. Center of Medical Education in English, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland

 

Abstract

Background

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is believed to be a result of abusing antibiotics in humans and animals. Antibiotics are widely used in modern medicine not merely in treating infections, but from prophylactic antibiotics for surgeries to cancer therapies. More novel drug candidates of antibiotics were developed lately. However, resistance generates more rapidly making antibiotics development arduous. Bacteriophage therapy alludes to infecting bacteria with a virus called bacteriophage, this often results in a bactericidal effect in the lytic stage. Like many other viruses, bacteriophages are species-specific. This makes it a good candidate for treating a specific bacterial infection without affecting other normal flora in our body.

Methods

Scientific literatures were gathered from the research database PubMed. The keywords include phage therapy, bacteriophage, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and multidrug resistance (MDR).

Results

The idea of using bacteriophage in treating bacterial infection traces back to the 80s in Eastern Europe, where bacteriophage therapy showed positive results clinically. Recent laboratory and clinical research shows possibility in utilizing phage therapy in combination with antibiotics for multiple-drug resistant bacterial infections including vancomycin-resistant enterococci and other respiratory bacterial infections.

Conclusions

Positive outcomes in treating vancomycin-resistant enterococci and other respiratory bacterial infections from literature are noted from the findings, as well as potential limitations. There are risks of triggering unwanted immunological responses. Certain bacterial strains pose insensitivity to phage therapy.

 


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