PMID- 11748184
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20020114
LR  - 20220330
IS  - 0019-9567 (Print)
IS  - 1098-5522 (Electronic)
IS  - 0019-9567 (Linking)
VI  - 70
IP  - 1
DP  - 2002 Jan
TI  - Bacteriophage therapy rescues mice bacteremic from a clinical isolate of 
      vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium.
PG  - 204-10
AB  - Colonization of the gastrointestinal tract with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus 
      faecium (VRE) has become endemic in many hospitals and nursing homes in the 
      United States. Such colonization predisposes the individual to VRE bacteremia 
      and/or endocarditis, and immunocompromised patients are at particular risk for 
      these conditions. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains 
      requires the exploration of alternative antibacterial therapies, which led our 
      group to study the ability of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages, or phages) to 
      rescue mice with VRE bacteremia. The phage strain used in this study has lytic 
      activity against a wide range of clinical isolates of VRE. One of these VRE 
      strains was used to induce bacteremia in mice by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection 
      of 10(9) CFU. The resulting bacteremia was fatal within 48 h. A single i.p. 
      injection of 3 x 10(8) PFU of the phage strain, administered 45 min after the 
      bacterial challenge, was sufficient to rescue 100% of the animals. Even when 
      treatment was delayed to the point where all animals were moribund, approximately 
      50% of them were rescued by a single injection of this phage preparation. The 
      ability of this phage to rescue bacteremic mice was demonstrated to be due to the 
      functional capabilities of the phage and not to a nonspecific immune effect. The 
      rescue of bacteremic mice could be effected only by phage strains able to grow in 
      vitro on the bacterial host used to infect the animals, and when such strains are 
      heat inactivated they lose their ability to rescue the infected mice.
FAU - Biswas, Biswajit
AU  - Biswas B
AD  - National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
FAU - Adhya, Sankar
AU  - Adhya S
FAU - Washart, Paul
AU  - Washart P
FAU - Paul, Brian
AU  - Paul B
FAU - Trostel, Andrei N
AU  - Trostel AN
FAU - Powell, Bradford
AU  - Powell B
FAU - Carlton, Richard
AU  - Carlton R
FAU - Merril, Carl R
AU  - Merril CR
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Infect Immun
JT  - Infection and immunity
JID - 0246127
RN  - 0 (Antibodies, Viral)
SB  - IM
EIN - Infect Immun 2002 Mar;70(3):1664
MH  - Animals
MH  - Antibodies, Viral/blood/immunology
MH  - Bacteremia/*therapy
MH  - Bacteriophages/immunology/*physiology/ultrastructure
MH  - Disease Models, Animal
MH  - Enterococcus faecium/growth & development/*virology
MH  - Female
MH  - Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections/*therapy
MH  - Heating
MH  - Humans
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred BALB C
MH  - Microscopy, Electron
MH  - Time Factors
MH  - *Vancomycin Resistance
PMC - PMC127648
EDAT- 2001/12/19 10:00
MHDA- 2002/01/15 10:01
PMCR- 2002/01/01
CRDT- 2001/12/19 10:00
PHST- 2001/12/19 10:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2002/01/15 10:01 [medline]
PHST- 2001/12/19 10:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2002/01/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 1213 [pii]
AID - 10.1128/IAI.70.1.204-210.2002 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Infect Immun. 2002 Jan;70(1):204-10. doi: 10.1128/IAI.70.1.204-210.2002.