Phage therapy as a renewed therapeutic approach to mycobacterial infections: a comprehensive review

Mycobacterial infections are considered to a serious challenge of medicine, and the emergence of MDR and XDR tuberculosis is a serious public health problem. Tuberculosis can cause high morbidity and mortality around the world, particularly in developing countries. The emergence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium infection following limited therapeutic technologies coupled with the serious worldwide tuberculosis epidemic has adversely affected control programs, thus necessitating the study of the role bacteriophages in the treatment of mycobacterial infection. Bacteriophages are viruses that are isolated from several ecological specimens and do not exert adverse effects on patients. Phage therapy can be considered as a significant alternative to antibiotics for treating MDR and XDR mycobacterial infections. The useful ability of bacteriophages to kill Mycobacterium spp has been explored by numerous research studies that have attempted to investigate the phage therapy as a novel therapeutic/diagnosis approach to mycobacterial infections. However, there are restricted data about phage therapy for treating mycobacterial infections. This review presents comprehensive data about phage therapy in the treatment of mycobacterial infection, specifically tuberculosis disease.