Antibiotic resistance is one of the global challenges which needs to be addressed immediately. Nowadays, antibiotic-resistant infections are not easily getting cured with conventional antibiotics and thereby causing havoc. This issue can be addressed by developing either new antimicrobials or strategies that will increase the efficiency of the current antimicrobials. The development of strategies uplifting activity of available antimicrobials seems relatively inexpensive, hence, this area is under extensive research.

A team led by Fernando Altamiarano and Jeremy Barr, Monash University, Australia has characterized two bacteriophages ΦFG02 and ΦCO01 (viruses specifically infecting bacteria) and demonstrated that they affect antibiotic-resistant clinical isolate of Acinetobacter baumannii which is on the top of priority target list declared by WHO. Bacteria possessing capsule escape from the antibiotics and host immune response. However, phages characterized by researchers from Monash University specifically uses capsule to enter into the bacterial cell. Thus, these phages offer myriad advantages to cure antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii infections in-vivo. Moreover, researchers also studied that phage-resistant bacteria, lacking capsules can easily get removed by traditional antibiotics and host immune response.

To recapitulate, bacteriophages (ΦFG02 and ΦCO01) possess great potential to cure infections caused by antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii.

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