An interesting observation from Campobasso et al. “Human serum lipids affect Staphylococcus aureus sensitivity to phage infection“
- Adult human serum in vitro prevents phage lytic activity against S. aureus
- Foetal calf serum does not affect bacterial sensitivity to phages
- The lipid fraction of human serum plays a major role in the inhibitory effect
- Serum inhibitory effect is bacterial strain-specific
Accordingly, the authors wrote, “We found that adult human serum completely impairs phage infectivity due to interactions between serum components and bacterial cells rather than direct phage neutralisation. Albumin, IgG, and thermolabile components were demonstrated not to significantly contribute to the inhibitory effect, whereas lipids were identified as playing a key role. Furthermore, the sensitivity of different bacterial strains to phages was shown to be differentially affected by the presence of serum, as two of the strains tested remained susceptible to lysis despite serum exposure. Taken together, our findings suggest that serum lipid fraction impacts phage infectivity in a strain-specific manner, highlighting the need for tailored approaches for phage therapy.”
Read here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857925001232
PHAGElogist 