COMBATING CARBAPENEMS RESISTANT ENTEROBACTERIACEAE (CRE) KLEBSIELLA PNEUMONIAE USING PHAGE THERAPY

Introduction:

One of the most problematic common bacteria isolated from infected joints is the Gram negative Carbapenems Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), Klebsiella pneumonia. This resistant bacterium presents a serious threat to public health today since carbapenems are the last resort antibiotics in treatment of life-threatening drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in adults and more severely in children. K.pneumonia accounts for the vast majority of hospital and community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs) and is also a frequent cause of nosocomial (health care–associated) bloodstream infections and community-acquired pneumonia among alcoholics.

Our approach to combat this bacteria is the use of Phage therapy where we use bacteriophages against the pathogen. Phage therapy has become very popular for combating various infectious diseases due to its high efficacy, ease of isolation and above all specificity.

Materials and methods:

Two lytic bacteriophages termed as KPLK5 and KPLK11 against Klebsiella Pneunomia have been isolated from sewage effluents using. Both of the phages demonstrated impressive lytic ability by exhibiting clear plaques on agar plates and inhibition of CRE - K. pneumoniae growth in liquid. We are currently assessing the efficacy of these phages against logarithmic, stationary and biofilm cultures of CRE - K. pneumoniae. We have also purified their genomic DNA which is under sequencing.

Results:

The morphology of plaques of each phage differs from the other, KPLK5 exhibits small clear plaques while KPLK11 exhibits large plaques. The phages are highly effective against the logarithmic and stationary phase cultures of CRE Klebsiella Pneumonia cultures.

Conclusion:

In Conclusions, we propose the use of phage therapy as an effective tool against CRE Klebsiella Pneumonia infections in future.