Investigation of phague isolation and the potential for lytic effects of lytic pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomanas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative, free-living and parasitic bacterium commonly found in the environment. It is an important opportunistic pathogen that causes difficult-to-treat infections in humans and animals due to its multiple antibiotic resistance and virulence factors. Treatment with phages has gained importance due to antibiotic resistance. In this study, it was aimed to isolate phage(s) with lytic effect for P. aeruginosa and to determine the lytic effects of these phages on different P. aeruginosa isolates. For this purpose, 3 different phages were isolated from sources where phages are likely to be found such as sewage samples, manure samples and the lytic effects of these phages on different P. aeruginosa isolates were investigated. For this purpose, 40 P. aeruginosa isolated from various clinical or environmental samples in the Culture Collection of Harran University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology were used. These host bacteria were considered to have multidrug resistance. The host bacteria were 100% resistant to penicillin, tylosin, oxytetracycline and erythromycin, 90% resistant to ampicillin, 87.5% resistant to streptomycin and amoxicillin/clavulonic acid, 85% resistant to cefquinom, 77.5% resistant to doxycycline, 1.5% resistant to azithromycin and 12.5% resistant to gentamicin, while all isolates were sensitive to enrofloxacin. Among the 3 phages isolated and coded in the study, PAFO phage caused lysis on 25 isolates (62.5%), PAFA phage caused lysis on 35 isolates (87.5%) and PAFS phage caused lysis on 30 isolates (75%), while 10 isolates (25%) in which all three phages showed lytic effect were determined. In conclusion, lytic bacteriophages against P. aeruginosa may be a specific and effective therapeutic option with the potential to tackle challenges such as antibiotic resistance and infection control. Therefore, it would be useful to further characterize the phages obtained in this study and determine their potential for commercialization for therapeutic or environmental contamination applications.