Implications of Bacteriophage- and Bacteriophage Component-Based Therapies for the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

Treatment of bacterial infections is increasingly challenged by resistance to currently available antibacterial agents. Not only are such agents less likely to be active today than they were in the past, but their very use has selected for and continues to select for further resistance. Additional strategies for the management of bacterial illnesses must be identified. In this review, bacteriophage-based therapies are presented as one promising approach. In anticipation of their potential expansion into clinical medicine, clinical microbiologists may wish to acquaint themselves with bacteriophages and their antibacterial components and, specifically, with methods for testing them. Here, we reviewed the literature spanning January 2007 to March 2019 on bacteriophage and phage-encoded protein therapies of relevance to clinical microbiology.