A New Insight into Phage Combination Therapeutic Approaches Against Drug-Resistant Mixed Bacterial Infections

Abstract

Rising antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens has become a substantial health issue for human civilization. The emergence of these pathogens in high-risk diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) has led to financial and nonfinancial losses, necessitating alternative therapies. This study presents an overview of such approaches, including phage therapy, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), nanotechnology, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), microbial therapies (probiotic therapy), clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats technology (CRISPR), and aptamers focusing on their mechanisms of action and exploring the impact of combining phage and phage derivatives with the mentioned approaches. Although alternative approaches and their combinations with phages show promise, the phage–antibiotic combination has been the subject of most studies, and It has been proven to be highly effective in combating antibiotic-resistant infections. Other combinations also appear promising, but further studies are needed to determine their effectiveness. This emphasizes the need for more thorough research into different phage combination treatments beyond the well-established phage–antibiotic strategy.