Characterization of an Enterococcus faecalis Bacteriophage vB_EfaM_LG1 and Its Synergistic Effect With Antibiotic.

Min Song, Dongmei Wu, Yang Hu, Haiyan Luo, Gongbo Li

Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology 2021

filter terms:

Enterococcus faecalis is a Gram-positive opportunistic pathogen that could cause pneumonia and bacteremia in stroke patients. The development of antibiotic resistance in hospital-associated E. faecalis is a formidable public health threat. Bacteriophage therapy is a renewed solution to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. However, bacteria can acquire phage resistance quite quickly, which is a significant barrier to phage therapy. Here, we characterized a lytic E. faecalis bacteriophage Vb_EfaM_LG1 with lytic activity. Its genome did not contain antibiotic resistance or virulence genes. Vb_EfaM_LG1 effectively inhibits E. faecalis growth for a short period, and phage resistance developed within hours. However, the combination of antibiotics and phage has a tremendous synergistic effect against E. faecalis, prevents the development of phage resistance, and disrupts the biofilm efficiently. Our results show that the phage-antibiotic combination has better killing efficiency against E. faecalis. Copyright © 2021 Song, Wu, Hu, Luo and Li.

Citation

Min Song, Dongmei Wu, Yang Hu, Haiyan Luo, Gongbo Li. Characterization of an Enterococcus faecalis Bacteriophage vB_EfaM_LG1 and Its Synergistic Effect With Antibiotic. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology. 2021;11:698807