Phage fitness may help predict phage therapy efficacy

We isolated 6 phages from 2 environmental water sources and assessed their ability to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of Drosophila melanogaster. We found all 6 phages were able to significantly increase mean survival time (MST) of infected D. melanogaster. Although phage traits, such as adsorption rate, burst size, and lysis time, varied significantly among these phages, none of the traits correlated significantly with MST. Phage growth rate determined in vitro, however, was found to be significantly correlated with MST. Overall, our study shows that infected D. melanogaster can be used as a model system to test the therapeutic efficacy of phages. In addition, a more comprehensive characteristic, like the in vitro growth rate, seems to be a better indicator in predicting therapeutic success than constituent traits like the adsorption rate, burst size, or lysis time.