Newly isolated Pakpunavirus: efficacy and safety assessment in light of alternative therapies against P. aeruginosa skin infections.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the major cause of hospital-acquired infections and morbidity and mortality in individuals with burn wounds, due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. As a result, some scientists are concentrating on research for alternative treatment, with phage therapy being one of the suggestions. However, a thorough description of the phages under consideration for use is necessary to optimize the treatment process. Thus, we show in this paper that the newly isolated phage vB_Pa_AN-12, member of the Pakpunavirus genus, is a perfect fit for phage therapy. It can infect several clinical strains of P. aeruginosa, including those resistant to multiple antibiotics. It is also able to decrease the viability of host cells strain by 5 logs in 1 h. Furthermore, it does not carry any harmful genes, and has efficient intracellular development with about 100 progeny virions per infected cell. Additionally, it did not affect the viability of cell lines that represented keratinocytes (HaCaT), fibroblasts (BJ), and monocytes (SC). These results suggest that usage of this phage, especially for skin infections, won't cause any side effects resulting from phage-human cell interactions. Nevertheless, given there is a possibility of phage resistance development, the action of isolated phage should be further investigated in combinations with other antimicrobials.