Clinical Phage Microbiology: a suggested framework and recommendations for the in-vitro matching steps of phage therapy.
Daniel Gelman, Ortal Yerushalmy, Sivan Alkalay-Oren, Chani Rakov, Shira Ben-Porat, Leron Khalifa, Karen Adler, Mohanad Abdalrhman, Shunit Coppenhagen-Glazer, Saima Aslam, Robert T Schooley, Ran Nir-Paz, Ronen Hazan
Author Information
Daniel Gelman: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Military Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Ortal Yerushalmy: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Sivan Alkalay-Oren: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Chani Rakov: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Shira Ben-Porat: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Military Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Leron Khalifa: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Karen Adler: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Mohanad Abdalrhman: Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Shunit Coppenhagen-Glazer: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Saima Aslam: Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA; Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Robert T Schooley: Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA; Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Ran Nir-Paz: Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Ronen Hazan: Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: ronenh@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
Phage therapy is a promising solution for bacterial infections that are not eradicated by conventional antibiotics. A crucial element of this approach is appropriate matching of bacteriophages and antibiotics to the bacterial target according to the clinical setting. However, there is currently little consistency in the protocols used for the laboratory evaluation of bacteriophages intended for antibacterial treatment. In this Personal View, we suggest a framework aimed to match appropriate bacteriophage-based treatments in clinical microbiology laboratories. This framework, which we have termed Clinical Phage Microbiology, is based on the current research on phage treatments. In addition, we discuss special cases that might require additional relevant evaluation, including bacteriophage interactions with the host immune response, biofilm-associated infections, and polymicrobial infections. The Clinical Phage Microbiology pipeline could serve as the basis for future standardisation of laboratory protocols for personalised phage therapy.
