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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Phage Biology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1455710
This article is part of the Research Topic Bacteriophages, Prophages, and Their Products: Regulating Bacterial Populations View all 8 articles

Bacteriophage as a Novel Therapeutic Approach for Killing Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli ST131 Clone

Provisionally accepted
Md Shamsuzzaman Md Shamsuzzaman Shukho Kim Shukho Kim Jungmin Kim Jungmin Kim *
  • Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The emergence of the multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli ST131 clone has significantly impacted public health. With traditional antibiotics becoming less effective against MDR bacteria, there is an urgent need for alternative treatment options. This study aimed to isolate and characterize four lytic phages (EC.W2-1, EC.W2-6, EC.W13-3, and EC.W14-3) from hospital sewage water and determine their effectiveness against the ST131 clone. These phages demonstrated a broad host range, effectively lysing 94.4% of highly pathogenic E. coli ST131 isolates. Morphological observations and phylogenetic analysis indicate that EC.W2-1, and EC.W13-3 belong to the Tequatrovirus genus in the Straboviridae family, while EC.W2-6 and EC.W14-3 are part of the Kuravirus genus in the Podoviridae family. Phages remained stable at pH 2-10 for 4 h and below 80°C for 1 h. These four phages showed in vitro bacterial lytic activity at various MOIs (0.1–0.001). The one-step growth curve of phages exhibited a short latent period of approximately 10–20 min and a moderate burst size of 50–80 (pfu/cell). Phages' genome size ranged from 46,325 – 113,909 bp, with G+C content of 35.1 % –38.3 %. No virulence or drug resistance genes were found, which enhanced their safety profile. In vivo, EC.W2-6 and EC.W13.3, along with their cocktail, fully protected against the ESBL-producing E. coli ST131 infection model in vivo. Combining these phages and a 3-day repeated single phage, EC.W13-3 significantly enhanced the survival rate of E. coli ST131 infected mice at low MOI (0.01–0.001). The in vivo effectiveness of the isolated phages and the EC.W2-6 and EC.W14-3 cocktail in highly reducing bacterial load CFU/g in multiple organs strongly supports their potential efficacy. Based on in vivo, in vitro, and genomic analyses, phages have been proposed as novel and suitable candidates for killing the pandemic ST131 clone.

    Keywords: Escherichia coli, clone ST131, antibiotic resistance, Bacteriophages, therapeutic efficiency

    Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shamsuzzaman, Kim and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jungmin Kim, Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.