Isolation and Characterization of Novel Lytic Bacteriophage Infecting Hospital-Associated Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Strain from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Klebsiella pneumoniae Bacteriophage

Multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens have posed a serious threat to global health. An alternative for controlling multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens is a bacteriophage with the capacity to effectively and specifically lyse bacteria. Due to the emergence of multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, novel agents for controlling infections caused by the bacteria are urgently needed. Klebsiella pneumoniae are becoming a more common cause of nosocomial infections acquired in the community. The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in hospitalized patients has resulted in an increase in K. pneumoniae carriage as well as the development of multi-drug resistant isolates that frequently generate extended-spectrum β-lactamases and/or other antibiotic defenses. K. pneumoniae is a pathogen that is clinically significant and is frequently associated with multidrug resistance in humans. Some of its strains have recently been elevated to the level of superbug. It is becoming increasingly difficult to treat K. pneumoniae-induced infection with antibiotics, and it is becoming necessary to develop new approaches to this problem. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and have been used in the past to treat a variety of bacterial infections in human beings. As a result, probably for the first time in Bangladesh, a K. pneumoniae specific bacteriophage designated as Soh1 was isolated and characterized in order to develop a potential therapeutic agent. Soh1 phage was found to have a broad host range within the genus Klebsiella, as demonstrated by its ability to lyse 8 out of 15 different Klebsiella cultures, but it was unable to infect bacteria from other genera during the host range investigation. The phage was perfectly stable in chloroform, but it completely lost its ability to infect when exposed to ethanol. According to the findings, in theory, Soh1 has a latent period of 20 minutes and a burst size of approximately 140 plaque forming units per infected cell, with a latent period of 20 minutes. This study contributes to the growing number of bacteriophages that have been discovered, particularly a bacteriophage specific to K. pneumoniae, in the field. Studies on its biological characteristics may yield valuable information and knowledge that can be applied to the development of a potential therapeutic agent for K. pneumoniae infection. Further investigation is required in order to retrieve all of the necessary information for further research.