Phage Therapy for Hospital-Acquired Respiratory Bacterial Infections: A Review.

Antibiotic-resistant respiratory infections necessitate alternative or adjunctive therapeutic strategies to reduce the bacterial burden in patients, particularly in the context of hospital-acquired infections. Bacteriophage therapy has emerged as a promising tool, with a resurgence of research in Western countries for various infectious diseases. The application of phage therapy against pulmonary infections has been primarily investigated for pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii in in vivo experiments and for Mycobacterium abscessus and P. aeruginosa in compassionate use cases. This review summarizes recent work on phage therapy targeting clinically relevant drug-resistant bacteria that cause nosocomial pulmonary infections, encompassing animal research, clinical cases, and clinical trials.