Phages prevent biofilm formation on catheters under flow

Abstract

Biofilms pose a significant challenge in medical settings, leading to persistent infections. Phage therapy has shown promise in biofilm eradication, but its effectiveness under dynamic flow conditions remains unclear. Here we use two novel phages isolated on Klebsiella, Llofrudd and Samara, and characterized their genomes, host range and virulence. In this study, we built a simple catheterised bladder model with flow to investigate the impact of phage treatment on biofilm viability in a flow-based catheter model. Our analyses demonstrate that phages Llofrudd and Samara are the same species and infect a limited number of strains (3/222), but across three species: Klebsiella aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli. Phage treatment significantly reduced E. coli biofilm viability in catheters both in static conditions and under flow, highlighting the potential of phage therapy as an intervention strategy for catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI).