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BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance of bacterial pathogens is an increasing clinical problem and alternative approaches to antibiotic chemotherapy are needed. One of these approaches is the use of lytic bacterial viruses known as phage therapy. We aimed to assess the efficacy of phage therapy in preclinical animal models of bacterial infection. METHODS: measure and its 95% CI were also calculated. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42022311309. FINDINGS: = 99% 98 to 99) treated with phage therapy had significantly lower tissue bacterial loads at 5 ± 2 days of follow-up compared with placebo. INTERPRETATION: Phage therapy significantly improved animal survival and reduced organ bacterial loads compared with placebo in preclinical animal models. However, high heterogeneity was observed in some comparisons. More evidence is needed to identify the factors influencing phage therapy performance to improve future clinical application. FUNDING: Swiss National Foundation and Swiss Heart Foundation.
Gómez‐Ochoa et al. (Wed,) studied this question.