Community-acquired pneumonia: aetiology, antibiotic resistance and prospects of phage therapy

Abstract

Bacteria are the most common aetiological agents of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and use a variety of mechanisms to evade the host immune system. With the emerging antibiotic resistance, CAP-causing bacteria have now become resistant to most antibiotics. Consequently, significant morbimortality is attributed to CAP despite their varying rates depending on the clinical setting in which the patients being treated. Therefore, there is a pressing need for a safe and effective alternative or supplement to conventional antibiotics. Bacteriophages could be a ray of hope as they are specific in killing their host bacteria. Several bacteriophages had been identified that can efficiently parasitize bacteria related to CAP infection and have shown a promising protective effect. Thus, bacteriophages have shown immense possibilities against CAP inflicted by multidrug-resistant bacteria. This review provides an overview of common antibiotic-resistant CAP bacteria with a comprehensive summarization of the promising bacteriophage candidates for prospective phage therapy.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Community-acquired pneumonia
• aetiology
• antibiotic resistance
• bacteriophage
• lefamulin
• phage therapy

Disclosure statement

No financial support was received, and none of the authors has a conflict of interest concerning this review.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Md. Moinuddin Sheam

Md Moinuddin Sheam graduated from the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh, and working as a Research Assistant at the same department. He endures interest regarding the emerging viral outbreak, multidrug resistance and infection biology.

Shifath Bin Syed

Shifath Bin Syed is currently working as a Research Assistant at the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh, and completed his graduation from the same department. He possesses keen research interest in computational biology, molecular epidemiology and infection microbiology.

Zulkar Nain

Zulkar Nain is a Research Fellow at the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, East West University, Bangladesh. His research interest encompasses microbial pathogenesis, quorum sensing, antibiotic resistance as well as bioinformatics and comparative genomics.

Swee- Seong Tang

Dr. Swee-Seong Tang is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Malaysia. He obtained his PhD degree on molecular microbiology from Australian National University, Australia.

Dipak Kumar Paul

Dr. Dipak Kumar Paul is a Professor at the Department of Applied Nutrition and Food Technology, Islamic University, Bangladesh.

Kazi Rejvee Ahmed

Kazi Rejvee Ahmed is a Graduate and Research Assistant at the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering from Islamic University, Bangladesh.

Sudhangshu Kumar Biswas

Dr. Sudhangshu Kumar Biswas is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Islamic University, Bangladesh. His research interests are related to multidrug-resistant bacteria, molecular microbiology, bacteriophage biology and phage therapy.