Yamashita Wakana, Sato Yuta, Imanaka Matthew, Kataoka Michiyo, Suzuki Tadaki, Azam Aa Haeruman, Ojima Shinjiro, Hayakawa Kayoko, Saito Sho, Moriyama Yuki, Ohmagari Norio, Kurokawa Masami, Mezaki Kazuhisa, Tamura Azumi, Cui Longzhu, Fujiki Jumpei, Iwano Hidetomo, Takahashi Yoshimasa, Watashi Koichi, Tsuneda Satoshi, Kiga Kotaro
Research Center for Drug and Vaccine Development, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8640, Japan.
Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience, Waseda University, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8480, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 13;15(1):29743. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-14811-5.
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a bacterium often resistant to antibiotics and is a significant cause of nosocomial infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients. Phage therapy has shown promise as a potential treatment for such difficult-to-treat bacterial infections, but research on phages targeting this bacterium is very limited. In this study, we isolated 34 phages using four clinical strains of S. maltophilia and evaluated their infectivity and bactericidal activity. While some phages infected all four strains, many exhibited strain-specific infectivity. We investigated the bacterial growth curves in response to three phages, named Yut1, Yut2, and Yut4, and found that all phages exhibited potent lytic activity against the clinical strains even at low doses. Genome analysis found that the phages did not carry any lysogeny genes, virulence factors, or antibiotic resistance genes, suggesting their high potential as therapeutic phages. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis suggested that Yut1 and Yut4 belong to a novel phage lineage. These results highlight the therapeutic potential of our novel phages to combat the growing antibiotic resistance problem.
嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌是一种通常对抗生素耐药的细菌，是医院感染的重要原因，尤其是在免疫功能低下的患者中。噬菌体疗法已显示出作为治疗此类难治性细菌感染的潜在疗法的前景，但针对这种细菌的噬菌体研究非常有限。在本研究中，我们使用嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌的四株临床菌株分离出34种噬菌体，并评估了它们的感染性和杀菌活性。虽然一些噬菌体感染了所有四株菌株，但许多噬菌体表现出菌株特异性感染性。我们研究了三种名为Yut1、Yut2和Yut4的噬菌体对细菌生长曲线的影响，发现即使在低剂量下，所有噬菌体对临床菌株都表现出强大的裂解活性。基因组分析发现，这些噬菌体不携带任何溶原性基因、毒力因子或抗生素耐药基因，表明它们作为治疗性噬菌体具有很高的潜力。此外，系统发育分析表明，Yut1和Yut4属于一个新的噬菌体谱系。这些结果突出了我们新型噬菌体对抗日益严重的抗生素耐药性问题的治疗潜力。
