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Unravelling the consequences of the bacteriophages in human samples

Pedro Blanco-Picazo1, Dietmar Fernández-Orth2, Maryury Brown-Jaque1

  • 1Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of Barcelona, Diagonal 643, Annex, Floor 0, 08028, Barcelona, Spain.

Scientific Reports
|April 23, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) in human samples can hinder pathogen detection. A simple method effectively reduces phage interference, improving bacterial recovery and molecular diagnostics.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Virology
  • Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

  • Bacteriophages are prevalent in human biomes and clinical samples.
  • Phages can interfere with bacterial pathogen isolation and molecular detection by lysing bacteria or packaging bacterial genes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prevalence and impact of bacteriophages in various human clinical samples.
  • To evaluate a method for minimizing phage interference in bacterial diagnostics.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 271 human samples (blood culture, serum, ascitic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, urine) for infectious phages.
  • Characterization of phage genetic content from pooled urine and ascitic fluid samples.
  • Assessment of a phage reduction procedure's efficacy on phage and bacterial loads.

Main Results:

  • Infectious phages were detected in 11-45% of analyzed human samples.
  • Phage particles contained bacterial genes, including antibiotic resistance and 16S rRNA genes.
  • The phage reduction method decreased phage content by up to 3 logs, enhancing bacterial recovery by up to 6 logs.

Conclusions:

  • Bacteriophages are common in clinical samples and can interfere with bacterial diagnostics.
  • A simple phage reduction procedure significantly mitigates phage interference, improving bacterial isolation and molecular detection accuracy.

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