Development and Evaluation of the Efficacy of a Phage Cocktail Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the leading bacterial pathogens causing chronic respiratory infections and is associated with high mortality in cystic fibrosis. Given the increasing antibiotic resistance of P. aeruginosa, the development of alternative treatment methods, including the creation of phage cocktails that provide more effective antibacterial therapy through lytic activity and the inhibition of biofilm formation, is an urgent task. A phage cocktail SF1 is created from 10 lytic phages active against P. aeruginosa PAO 1. The lytic activity of the phages and SF1 is evaluated against 27 clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from cystic fibrosis patients and seven strains from a veterinary laboratory. Genomic analysis shows the absence of virulence and lysogeny genes in phages, which confirms the safety of the developed cocktail. In vitro, SF1 facilitates the complete lysis of 17 out of 34 tested strains.