Isolation and Characterization of Novel Lytic Phages Infecting Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most frequent bacterial infections worldwide, with Escherichia coli being the main causative agent. The increase of antibiotic-resistance determinants among isolates from clinical samples, including UTIs, makes the development of novel therapeutic strategies a necessity. In this context, the use of bacteriophages as a therapeutic alternative has been proposed, due to their ability to efficiently kill bacteria. In this work, we isolated and characterized three novel bacteriophages, microbes laboratory phage 1 (MLP1), MLP2, and MLP3, belonging to the Chaseviridae, Myoviridae, and Podoviridae families, respectively. These phages efficiently infect and kill laboratory reference strains and multidrug-resistant clinical E. coli isolates from patients with diagnosed UTIs. Interestingly, these phages are also able to infect intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli strains, such as enteroaggregative E. coli and diffusely adherent E. coli. Our data show that the MLP phages recognize different regions of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) molecule, an important virulence factor in bacteria that is also highly variable among different E. coli strains. Altogether, our results suggest that these phages may represent an interesting alternative for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant E. coli. IMPORTANCE Urinary tract infections affect approximately 150 million people annually. The current antibiotic resistance crisis demands the development of novel therapeutic alternatives. Our results show that three novel phages, MLP1, MLP2, and MLP3 are able to infect both laboratory and multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of Escherichia coli. Since these phages (i) efficiently kill antibiotic-resistant clinical isolates of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), (ii) recognize different portions of the LPS molecule, and (iii) are able to efficiently infect intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli hosts, we believe that these novel phages are good candidates to be used as a therapeutic alternative to treat antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains generating urinary tract and/or intestinal infections.