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Characterization of novel bacteriophage PSKP16 and its therapeutic potential against β-lactamase and biofilm producer strain of K2-Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae pneumonia infection in mice model

Sara Rahimi, Mehdi Bakht, Amir Javadi, Farshad Foroughi, Seyed Mahmoud Amin Marashi, Farhad Nikkhahi

BMC Microbiology, 2023

33 citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Severe infections caused by β- lactamase producers, hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (BhvKp) with K2 serotype, highlight emergency need for new therapeutic strategies against this pathogen. We aimed to assess the efficacy of a novel phage, PSKP16, in the treating of pneumonia induced by BhvKp in mice models. METHOD: Genome sequences of PSKP16 were analyzed, and associated information can be found in NCBI. We applied treatment in two ways: by using mice for immediate and delayed treatments. Moreover, acute pneumonia obtained by BhvKp with intranasal method, was characterized in terms of histopathology of pulmonary lesions, biomarkers of inflammation level, leukocytes cells infiltration extent in mice, and was assessed treatment of them with PSKP16 multiplicity of infection (MOI: 10), either individually or in combination with gentamicin. Assessment of the ability of PSKP16 to inhibit BhvKp biofilm was studied. RESULTS: PSKP16 was associated with the Drexlerviridae family, and had a genome size of 46,712 bp, and 67 predicted ORFs. Herein, prompt phage administration's efficacy to decrease bacterial load and improve the survival rate in pneumonia models was faster than the synergism model with delay, but both almost displayed similar endpoints. The distribution of BhvKp strains in the lung was consistent with the histopathological findings, simultaneous inflammation, and level of serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF α). The phage treatment presented a lack of…

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