Isolation and characterization of a novel Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage, phiMR25, and its therapeutic potential.

A novel bacteriophage, phiMR25, was isolated from a lysogenic Staphylococcus aureus strain by mitomycin C induction. Its biological features were analyzed in comparison with phiMR11, which was described previously as a prototype therapeutic phage. phiMR25 is morphologically similar to phiMR11 (morphotype B1 of family Myoviridae) but has a broader host range than phiMR11 on S. aureus strains. phiMR25 can also multiply on S. aureus lysogens of phiMR11. Its DNA is 44,342 bp in size, is predicted to include 70 open reading frames, and does not contain genes related to toxin or drug resistance. The lysogenic module and most of the putative virion protein genes are completely different from those of phiMR11. In spite of their genetic diversity, intraperitoneal administration of phiMR25 rescued mice inoculated with a lethal dose of S. aureus, as was the case for phiMR11. These results suggest that phiMR25 could be another candidate phage to treat S. aureus infection.