Phage therapy consists in the use of phages (viruses that exclusively infect bacteria) to kill bacteria that cause an infection and represents a promising strategy for treating bacterial infections that are refractory to antibiotics. For the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infections in persons with cystic fibrosis (CF), phage therapy may be a promising strategy. Even for phages, bacteria are able to develop resistance, a problem for phage therapy that can be limited by the use of phage cocktails. Researchers in this project will investigate the bacterial functions that cause resistance and the consequences of phage resistance on other aspects of the physiology of bacteria, in particular those relevant to infection. The general objective of this project is to evaluate which P. aeruginosa genes are involved in the origin of resistance to individual phages/cocktails and how the mutations that cause phage resistance impact on growth, virulence and antibiotic resistance. Researchers will also expand phage collections by including new phages capable of growing on cocktail-resistant mutants.

XIX Convention FFC Ricerca – download here a brief presentation of the project