Stability of bacteriophages in burn wound care products

PLoS One. 2017 Jul 27;12(7):e0182121. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182121. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Bacteriophages could be used along with burn wound care products to enhance antimicrobial pressure during treatment. However, some of the components of the topical antimicrobials that are traditionally used for the prevention and treatment of burn wound infection might affect the activity of phages. Therefore, it is imperative to determine the counteraction of therapeutic phage preparations by burn wound care products before application in patients. Five phages, representatives of two morphological families (Myoviridae and Podoviridae) and active against 3 common bacterial burn wound pathogens (Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) were tested against 13 different products commonly used in the treatment of burn wounds. The inactivation of the phages was quite variable for different phages and different products. Majority of the anti-infective products affected phage activity negatively either immediately or in the course of time, although impact was not always significant. Products with high acidity had the most adverse effect on phages. Our findings demonstrate that during combined treatment the choice of phages and wound care products must be carefully defined in advance.

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Infective Agents / chemistry
  • Bacteriophages / physiology*
  • Burns / virology*
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Wound Infection / virology*

Substances

  • Anti-Infective Agents

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Royal Higher Institute for Defense of Belgium (grant RSTD HFM 15-5) http://www.rma.ac.be/en/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.