In this episode, hosts Josh Davis (Newcastle, Australia) and Angela Huttner (Geneva, Switzerland) interview the phage ‘microbiologist-clinician duo’, Drs. Shawna McCallin and Lorenz Leitner (Balgrist Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland). They explore the history of phages, the process of bringing phage therapy to a patient, potential resistance to phages, availability of individualized therapy versus phage cocktails, and the place of phage therapy in the future. Drs. Leitner and McCallin reflect on the challenges and lessons of their recently published randomized trial comparing phage therapy to antibiotics for urinary tract infection. Episode peer-reviewed by Dr. Olivia Funk of Long Island University.

Literature

Leitner L, Ujmajuridze A, Chanishvili N et al. Intravesical bacteriophages for treating urinary tract infections in patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate: a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021 Mar;21(3):427-436. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30330-3.

CMI Communications editors Angela Huttner, Marc Bonten, and Erin McCreary discuss late-breaker clinical trials presented at ESCMID Global (ECCMID) in Barcelona, providing insights into the trials’ designs, results, and implications. The DOTS trial compared two doses of long-acting dalbavancin to standard of care in patients with complicated S. aureus bacteremia. GAME-CHANGER compared cefiderocol to standard of care for gram-negative infections. PediCAP compared oral step-down therapy with amoxicillin with or without clavulanic acid at shorter durations to the current WHO-recommended standard of five days of intravenous antibiotic therapy in children with severe pneumonia. Additional results from the MULTICAP and CLEEN trials, the CAMERA-2 follow-on in vitro analysis, and the Burkina Faso Escherichia coli transmission study are also discussed. Episode peer-reviewed by Dr. Yousra Kherabi.