Community post

David Sáez Moreno (PhagoMed) and colleagues published a new paper on naturally-bred 'ε2-phages'. They used the Appelman's protocol to train S. aureus phages to massively broaden host range and increase virulence. Surprisingly, they showed that plaquing efficacy doesn't correlate with phage ability to control bacterial growth in suspension, so the ‘phagogram’ may not actually be the appropriate (sole) predictor of clinical phage efficacy. They also found that S. aureus wild type phages (especially Podoviridae) may be too weak/unreliable for therapy, but that using the Appelman's method is straightforward to generate non-GMO phages that work better, without needing to know much about phage genes ahead of time.