Phage therapy pharmacology phage cocktails

Phage therapy is the clinical or veterinary application of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) as antibacterial "drugs." More generally, phages can be used as biocontrol agents against plant as well as foodborne pathogens. In this chapter, we consider the therapeutic use of phage cocktails, which is the combining of two or more phage types to produce more pharmacologically diverse formulations. The primary motivation for the use of cocktails is their broader spectra of activity in comparison to individual phage isolates: they can impact either more bacterial types or achieve effectiveness under a greater diversity of conditions. The combining of phages can also facilitate better targeting of multiple strains making up individual bacterial species or covering multiple species that might be responsible for similar disease states, in general providing, relative to individual phage isolates, a greater potential for presumptive or empirical treatment. Contrasting the use of phage banks, or even phage isolation against specific etiologies that have been obtained directly from patients under treatment, here we consider the utility as well as potential shortcomings associated with the use of phage cocktails as therapeutic antibacterial agents.