Bacteriophage therapy, an evaluation of safety and efficacy studies

Abstract

This review examines phase I and II bacteriophage therapy clinical trials in MDR bacteria, analyzing their safety and efficacy in clinical studies conducted over the past seven years, from 2018 to 2024, assessing the safety and efficacy of bacteriophage therapy. The inclusion criteria for this review are detailed in the methodology. Likewise, evaluation criteria such as: type of phages used (single or bacteriophage cocktails), valency (monovalent or polyvalent), routes of administration (oral, intravenous, intraperitoneal, among others), dose and duration of treatment, follow-up times, efficacy assessment (in vitro, clinical studies), safety, and tolerability are also included. In conclusion, bacteriophage therapy reports clinical improvement in patients with severe infections, tolerability, and a lack of serious adverse events, especially in those patients who do not respond to conventional antibiotics. The results suggest that bacteriophage therapies have enormous potential for treating bacterial infections resistant to traditional antibiotics. However, the lack of clinical studies in this field hampers its standardization, highlighting the need for a multidisciplinary approach for successful clinical implementation in future studies.