Impact of Bacterial Phenotypic Variation with Bacteriophage therapy: A Pilot Study with Prosthetic Joint Infection Isolates.

Abstract

Background: Given the specificity of bacteriophage attachment receptors, a single bacterial isolate is currently utilized to match to a bacteriophage therapeutic thereby extrapolating activity to all bacteria in vivo. Obstinately, the main bacteriophage attachment receptor for Staphylococcus aureus is teichoic acid and it is known that this receptor has phenotypic variations in different in vivo environments. Consequently, the aim of this study was to determine if bacteriophage activity is similar across all in vivo prosthetic joint infection environments.

Methods: Three patients with prosthetic joint infections who had S. aureus grow from arthrocentesis cultures and at least three deep tissue cultures were analyzed for growth inhibition with a library of 56 bacteriophages RESULTS: Discordant bacteriophage activity was seen across the different in vivo environments. As well bacteriophages with the most robust lytic potential to the arthrocentesis isolates usually did not have activity to all the deep tissues clinical isolates.

Conclusion: Variations of bacteriophage activity can occur between the different in vivo clinical environments which is likely secondary to different glycosylation patterns of teichoic acid. Consequently, if discordant activity is present then retreating with bacteriophages that have activity is likely needed for effective, reproducible outcomes.