Stimulating effect of lactoferrin on antibacterial efficacy of vB_SauM-A phage against multi-drug resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12pt;line-height:107%;font-family:&#39;times new roman&#39; , serif">Bacteriophages are seen as one of the most promising
alternatives to antibiotic treatment in fight against drug resistant bacteria.
However, as the interest in therapeutic potential of phages grew it became
clear that even phages have their limitations. Narrow spectrum of activity,
preference for bacteria in specific phase of metabolic activity or development
of resistance mechanisms to phages may influence the efficacy of phage treatment.
Therefore, in order to avoid those effects pairing bacteriophages with other
antimicrobials is being researched. In our work we have paired staphylococcal
phage vB_SauM-A with lactoferrin, a protein with proven antimicrobial activity
and we have studied how this combination affected phage performance. We have
observed that addition of 1mg/mL of lactoferrin resulted in increased efficacy
of plating of phage lysate. We have also noticed that it has influenced phage
adsorption and life cycle kinetics on two out of four tested <em>Staphylococcus
aureus</em> strains. Finally, in vivo experiment with <em>Galleria mellonella</em>
showed that phage-lactoferrin mixture had higher therapeutic effect than the
phage alone. Therefore, we assume that supplementation of phage cocktails with
lactoferrin may increase the efficacy of the treatment. However, the subject
requires more studies using different groups of phages and pathogens</span></p>