CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 36Bacteriophages and microbial interactionsVirus-based gene therapy researchPhotodynamic Therapy Research Studies

Current and future directions in bacteriophage research for developing therapeutic innovations

Open access
Cui, Longzhu, Kiga, Kotaro, Kondabagil, Kiran, Węgrzyn, Alicja·2024·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-76427-5PMC PMC11487266
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Phages are gaining attention for their ability to target drug-resistant bacteria, disrupt biofilms, and reach intracellular pathogens, offering promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics. The Collection discusses advances in phage therapy, including their application in vaccine development, cancer immunotherapy, and gene delivery systems. Key research gaps are identified, such as challenges related to phage stability, immune response, and regulatory hurdles. Despite the progress, phage therapy faces obstacles in maintaining phage viability, evading immune detection, and navigating complex regulatory frameworks. The articles collectively address these challenges and propose potential solutions to enhance the effectiveness and acceptance of phage-based treatments. By overcoming these barriers, bacteriophage research has the potential to revolutionize medical therapies, providing innovative approaches to some of the most pressing healthcare challenges today.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41598-024-76427-5

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Phages can eliminate cancer-associated bacteria.

    “Phages can eliminate cancer-associated bacteria, remodel the tumor microenvironment, enhance antitumor immunity, and deliver targeted therapeutic payloads.”

    From Phage therapy in oncology: opportunities for cancer prevention and treatment (2026) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Abstract (page unavailable) says phages infect and lyse bacteria, supporting the general antibacterial part of the claim. Its cancer-therapy discussion instead concerns targeting cancer cells; it does not say that phages eliminate cancer-associated bacteria. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Phages enable highly selective removal of cancer-associated bacteria within the gut or tumor niche, avoiding broad collateral damage to commensal communities associated with conventional antibiotics.

    “In parallel, phages enable highly selective removal of cancer-associated bacteria within the gut or tumor niche (Table 1), avoiding the broad collateral damage to commensal communities associated with conventional antibiotics [15,17,20,62,63]”

    From Phage therapy in oncology: opportunities for cancer prevention and treatment (2026) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Abstract says phages can target and lyse bacteria and describes efforts to improve their specificity. Its cancer discussion concerns targeting cancer cells, not removing cancer-associated bacteria from the gut or tumor niche; it also does not say phages spare commensal communities compared with conventional antibiotics. No page number is available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Phages exhibit low inherent toxicity and can be tailored to minimize off-target effects.

    “Phages exhibit low inherent toxicity and can be tailored to minimize off-target effects [15–17,62,99,100]”

    From Phage therapy in oncology: opportunities for cancer prevention and treatment (2026) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Abstract says engineered phages can target tumor cells and reduce the likelihood of off-target effects. It also cites evidence that phages can be used safely in therapy, but qualifies this as not inducing a strong anaphylactic response in birds and mammals; it does not establish broadly low inherent toxicity. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Phages are active immunological agents rather than passive microbial byproducts.

    “These interactions position phages as active immunological agents rather than passive microbial byproducts [62]”

    From Phage therapy in oncology: opportunities for cancer prevention and treatment (2026) · cites this paper as [62]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 23

  1. [1]Cui, L. et al. A comprehensive review on phage therapy and phage-based drug development. Antibiotics 13, 870. 10.3390/antibiotics13090870 (2024). 39335043 PMC11428490 · DOI
  2. [2]Salmond, G. P. C. & Fineran, P. C. A century of the phage: Past, present and future. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 13, 777–786. 10.1038/nrmicro3564 (2015). 26548913 · DOI
  3. [3]Sitthisak, S. et al. Antibacterial activity of vB_AbaM_PhT2 phage hydrophobic amino acid fusion endolysin, combined with colistin against Acinetobacter baumannii. Sci. Rep. 13, 7470–7470. 10.1038/s41598-023-33822-8 (2023). 37156803 PMC10167329 · DOI
  4. [5]The promise of phages. Nat. Biotechnol.41, 583-583. 10.1038/s41587-023-01807-7 (2023). PMC10169159 37161019 · DOI
  5. [6]Chang, C. et al. Bacteriophage-mediated control of biofilm: A promising new dawn for the future. Front. Microbiol. 13, 825828–825828. 10.3389/fmicb.2022.825828 (2022). 35495689 PMC9048899 · DOI
  6. [7]Manohar, P., Loh, B., Nachimuthu, R. & Leptihn, S. Phage-antibiotic combinations to control Pseudomonas aeruginosa-Candida two-species biofilms. Sci. Rep. 14, 9354–9354. 10.1038/s41598-024-59444-2 (2024). 38653744 PMC11039464 · DOI
  7. [8]Lu, T. K. & Collins, J. J. Dispersing biofilms with engineered enzymatic bacteriophage. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 104, 11197–11202. 10.1073/pnas.0704624104 (2007). 17592147 PMC1899193 · DOI · Paper page
  8. [9]Goicoechea Serrano, E., Blázquez-Bondia, C. & Jaramillo, A. T7 phage-assisted evolution of riboswitches using error-prone replication and dual selection. Sci. Rep. 14, 2377–2377. 10.1038/s41598-024-52049-9 (2024). 38287027 PMC10824729 · DOI
  9. [10]Abedon, S. T., Kuhl, S. J., Blasdel, B. G. & Kutter, E. M. Phage treatment of human infections. Bacteriophage 1, 66–85. 10.4161/bact.1.2.15845 (2011). 22334863 PMC3278644 · DOI
  10. [11]Bao, Q. et al. Phage-based vaccines. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 145, 40–56. 10.1016/j.addr.2018.12.013 (2019). 30594492 · DOI
  11. [12]Smith, G. P. & Petrenko, V. A. Phage display. Chem. Rev. 97, 391–410. 10.1021/cr960065d (1997). 11848876 · DOI
  12. [13]Veeranarayanan, S., Azam, A. H., Kiga, K., Watanabe, S. & Cui, L. Bacteriophages as solid tumor theragnostic agents. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23, 402. 10.3390/ijms23010402 (2021). 35008840 PMC8745063 · DOI · Paper page
  13. [14]Azam, A. H., Tan, X.-E., Veeranarayanan, S., Kiga, K. & Cui, L. Bacteriophage technology and modern medicine. Antibiotics (Basel) 10, 999. 10.3390/antibiotics10080999 (2021). 34439049 PMC8388951 · DOI
  14. [15]Wiebe, K. G., Cook, B. W. M., Lightly, T. J., Court, D. A. & Theriault, S. S. Investigation into scalable and efficient enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacteriophage production. Sci. Rep. 14, 3618–3618. 10.1038/s41598-024-53276-w (2024). 38351153 PMC10864315 · DOI
  15. [16]Flores, V. S. et al. Discovery and description of novel phage genomes from urban microbiomes sampled by the MetaSUB consortium. Sci. Rep. 14, 7913–7913. 10.1038/s41598-024-58226-0 (2024). 38575625 PMC10994904 · DOI
  16. [17]Sauvageau, D. & Cooper, D. G. Two-stage, self-cycling process for the production of bacteriophages. Microb. Cell Fact. 9, 81–81. 10.1186/1475-2859-9-81 (2010). 21040541 PMC2989940 · DOI
  17. [18]Bogun, K. et al. Investigating bacteriophages as a novel multiple-hurdle measure against Campylobacter: Field trials in commercial broiler plants. Sci. Rep. 14, 3182–3182. 10.1038/s41598-024-53365-w (2024). 38326411 PMC10850366 · DOI
  18. [19]Krut, O. & Bekeredjian-Ding, I. Contribution of the immune response to phage therapy. J. Immunol. 200, 3037–3044. 10.4049/jimmunol.1701745 (2018). 29685950 · DOI
  19. [20]Podlacha, M. et al. Bacteriophage DNA induces an interrupted immune response during phage therapy in a chicken model. Nat. Commun. 15, 2274–2274. 10.1038/s41467-024-46555-7 (2024). 38480702 PMC10937645 · DOI
  20. [21]Needham, P., Page, R. C. & Yehl, K. Phage-layer interferometry: a companion diagnostic for phage therapy and a bacterial testing platform. Sci. Rep. 14, 6026–6026. 10.1038/s41598-024-55776-1 (2024). 38472239 PMC10933294 · DOI
  21. [22]Faltus, T. The medicinal phage-regulatory roadmap for phage therapy under EU pharmaceutical legislation. Viruses 16, 443. 10.3390/v16030443 (2024). 38543808 PMC10974108 · DOI
  22. [23]Encyclopedia of Toxicology. 557 (Elsevier, 2014).
  23. [24]Würstle, S. et al. Optimized preparation pipeline for emergency phage therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa at Yale University. Sci. Rep. 14, 2657–2657. 10.1038/s41598-024-52192-3 (2024). 38302552 PMC10834462 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Cui, L., Kiga, K., Kondabagil, K., & Węgrzyn, A.
Affiliations
  • Jichi Medical University (JP)
  • National Institute of Infectious Diseases (JP)
  • Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IN)
  • University of Gdańsk (PL)
Corresponding author
Cui, Longzhu
ORCID
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2024-10-17
Volume
14
Issue
1
Pages
24404-24404
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-024-76427-5
PMC
PMC11487266
OpenAlex
W4403510273
Cited by
36
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 1
FWCI
9.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
  • Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
  • Russian Science Foundation
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (24H00662)
  • Moonshot Research and Development Program (JPJ009237)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Virus-based gene therapy research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies
Keywords
phage therapy, antibiotic resistance, biofilm eradication, intracellular pathogens, cancer immunotherapy, gene delivery, phage stability, immune evasion, regulatory challenges

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review