Isolation and Characterization of a High Thermal Resistance Bacteriophage vB-KPP01 Infecting Antibiotics Resistant Clinical Klebsiella pneumoniae (PP464225) Isolated from Egypt

Abstract

Background: Antibiotics-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae haspersistently developed greater resistance to groups of antibioticsas ?-lactums, Sulfonamides, carbapenem, Aminoglycosides andFluoroquinolones. Nonetheless, bacteriophages are beinginvestigated as a potential substitute for antibiotics in thetreatment of bacterial infections due to host specificity, no seriesside effects, without destroying normal flora of patient. In thisstudy, Bacteriophage vB-KPP01, isolated from local sewage ofTalkha, Egypt, was tested in-vitro to evaluate its lytic activityagainst antibiotics resistant K. pneumoniae isolated from bloodof patient with pneumonia at the Sandoub Health InsuranceHospital (SHIH). Methods: Thebacteriophage vB-KPP01 was assessed for its morphologicalcharacterization, phage adsorption, growth kinetics, in-vitro hostrange, temperature, dilution end point and pH sensitivity. InvitroLytic activity of phage vB-KPP01 was determined against K.pneumoniae. Results: bacteriophage vB-KPP01 produced aclear plaque with a halo (0.6 to 1.1cm) and had an icosahedralhead (127 nm) with short non-contractile tail (30.1 nm) wasclassified as podoviridae. The phage was tested against variousclinical strains and results proved it to be host specific and had aburst size of 490 PFU/cell. It was stable over a wide pH range of4–11.4 with maximum activity at pH 8.1 and had relatively strongheat stability up to 90°C. Phage vB-KPP01 demonstratedsignificant in-vitro lytic activity against K. pneumoniae, resultingin a maximum decrease in K. pneumoniae counts with 78.3%after 9.5 h of incubation. Conclusion: These attributes suggestthat phage vB-KPP01 could hold therapeutic promise for thetreatment of K. pneumoniae infections.