Isolation of new Klebsiella pneumoniae phage PSKP16

Sara Sadeqi; Slawomir Michniewski; Farhad Nikkhahi; Eleanor Jameson; Seyed Mahmoud  Amin Marashi

doi:10.18502/ijm.v15i1.11919

Sara Sadeqi Department of Medical Microbiology, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran
Slawomir Michniewski Department of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
Farhad Nikkhahi Medical Microbiology Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran
Eleanor Jameson Department of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
Seyed Mahmoud Amin Marashi Medical Microbiology Research Center, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijm.v15i1.11919

Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae; Bacteriophages; Drug resistance; Infection control; High throughput nucleotide sequencing

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Klebsiella pneumoniae is a clinically relevant opportunistic pathogen belonging to the En- terobacteriaceae family. It is in the top three bacteria associated with antimicrobial resistance deaths globally, and one of the most dangerous bacteria causing nosocomial infections. Phage therapy offers a potential option for the treatment of drug-re- sistant bacterial infections.

Materials and Methods: Phage PSKP16 was isolated against K. pneumoniae, capsular type K2 (isolated from a wound infection). PSKP16 is a new lytic phage with a Siphovirus-like morphology.

Results: PSKP16 is a linear double stranded DNA phage with a GC content of 50% and genome size of 46,712 bp, for which we predicted 67 ORFs. PSKP16 belongs to the genus Webervirus and shows high evolutionary proximity to Klebsiella phag- es JY917, Sushi, and B1.

Conclusion: Phage isolation is fast, cheap and efficient, but it requires time and characterization (which adds expense) to ensure that the isolated phages do not pose a health risk, which is essential to safely use phage therapy to treat life-threatening bacterial infections.