Skin Swabbing for Staphylococcus aureus-Targeting Phages

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Bacteriology
• Virology

Background:

• Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is a significant human pathogen with increasing antibiotic resistance.
• Novel antimicrobial strategies, including bacteriophage (phage) therapy, are crucial due to a lack of new antibiotics.
• Phage therapy offers a promising alternative for treating SA infections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of isolating SA-targeting phages from easily accessible cutaneous microbiome sites.
• To determine if noninvasive swabbing of anatomical locations could yield intact phages.
• To expand the library of phages targeting SA for potential clinical applications.

Main Methods:

• One hundred subjects provided skin swab samples from various anatomical sites (nares, axilla, nails, web spaces).
• Phage harvesting was performed using the soft agar overlay technique.
• Positive controls, including known SA-targeting phages and wound effluent, were used for validation.

Main Results:

• The skin swabbing procedure was well-tolerated and completed within 10 minutes.
• No SA-targeting phages were recovered from the skin swab samples.
• Positive controls successfully yielded SA-targeting phages, confirming methodology efficacy.

Conclusions:

• Skin swabbing of multiple anatomical sites from 100 adults did not yield sufficient biomass for phage recovery.
• The study provides valuable insights into the limitations of this method for phage isolation.
• Future research will focus on collecting large volumes of wound effluent from infected wounds to optimize phage recovery for SA.