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Phage Therapy Application to Counteract Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infection in Cystic Fibrosis Zebrafish Embryos
Published on: May 12, 2020
Bacteriophages can treat and prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infections
Laurent Debarbieux1, Dominique Leduc, Damien Maura
1Molecular Biology of the Gene in Extremophiles Unit, Department of Microbiology, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris, France. laurent.debarbieux@pasteur.fr
Abstract:
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria threaten life worldwide. Although new antibiotics are scarce, the use of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, is rarely proposed as a means of offsetting this shortage. Doubt also remains widespread about the efficacy of phage therapy despite recent encouraging results. Using a bioluminescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain, we monitored and quantified the efficacy of a bacteriophage treatment in mice during acute lung infection. Bacteriophage treatment not only was effective in saving animals from lethal infection, but also was able to prevent lung infection when given 24 h before bacterial infection, thereby extending the potential use of bacteriophages as therapeutic agents to combat bacterial lung infection.
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