Journal Article

Current challenges and future opportunities of phage therapy

Costa, Ana Rita, Pinto, Graça, Azeredo, Joana, Pires, Diana P, Meneses, Luciana

2020

Overview

ABSTRACT Antibiotic resistance is a major public health challenge worldwide, whose implications for global health might be devastating if novel antibacterial strategies are not quickly developed. As natural predators of bacteria, (bacterio)phages may play an essential role in escaping such a dreadful future. The rising problem of antibiotic resistance has revived the interest in phage therapy and important developments have been achieved over the last years. But where do we stand today and what can we expect from phage therapy in the future? This is the question we set to answer in this review. Here, we scour the outcomes of human phage therapy clinical trials and case reports, and address the major barriers that stand in the way of using phages in clinical settings. We particularly address the potential of phage resistance to hinder phage therapy and discuss future avenues to explore the full capacity of phage therapy. There is a remarkable potential of phage therapy for the control of antibiotic resistant infections within the One Health approach, thus, the challenges currently faced and the potential solutions in development must be considered.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use / Antibacterial agents / Antibiotic resistance / Antibiotics / Antiinfectives and antibacterials / Bacteria - virology / Bacteriophages - physiology / Case reports / Clinical trials / Clinical Trials as Topic / Drug resistance / Drug resistance in microorganisms / Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Evidence-based medicine / Global health / Humans / phage cocktails / phage engineering / phage resistance / Phage Therapy - trends / Phages / Predators / Public health / regulatory framework / Therapy