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JAC Advance Access originally published online on May 2, 2009
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 2009 64(1):59-61; doi:10.1093/jac/dkp157
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Original research

The inability of a bacteriophage to infect Staphylococcus aureus does not prevent it from specifically delivering a photosensitizer to the bacterium enabling its lethal photosensitization

C. K. Hope1,2, S. Packer1, M. Wilson1 and S. P. Nair1,*

1 Division of Microbial Diseases, UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London, UK 2 Unit of Plaque Related Diseases, School of Dental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Received 7 January 2009; returned 13 March 2009; revised 19 March 2009; accepted 9 April 2009

* Corresponding author. Tel: +44-20-7915-1118; Fax: +44-20-7915-1127; E-mail: snair{at}eastman.ucl.ac.uk

Objectives: It has been demonstrated that the efficiency of lethal photosensitization can be improved by covalently binding photosensitizing agents to bacteriophage. In this study we have investigated whether a bacteriophage requires the capacity to infect the bacterium to enhance lethal photosensitization when linked to a photosensitizer.

Methods: Tin (IV) chlorin e6 (SnCe6) was conjugated to bacteriophage {Phi}11, a transducing phage that can infect Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 8325-4, but not epidemic methicillin-resistant S. aureus (EMRSA)-16. The conjugate and appropriate controls were incubated with these bacteria and either exposed to laser light at 632.8 nm or kept in the dark.

Results: The SnCe6/{Phi}11 conjugate achieved a statistically significant reduction in the number of viable bacteria of both 8325-4 and EMRSA-16 strains by 2.31 log10 and 2.63 log10, respectively. The conjugate could not however instigate lethal photosensitization of Escherichia coli. None of the other combinations of controls, such as an equivalent concentration of SnCe6 only, an equivalent titre of bacteriophage only or experiments conducted without laser light, yielded significant reductions in the number of viable bacteria recovered.

Conclusions: The inability of a bacteriophage to infect S. aureus does not prevent it from specifically delivering a photosensitizer to a bacterium enabling its lethal photosensitization.

Keywords: tin (IV) chlorin e6 , SnCe6 , MRSA , photodynamic therapy , PDT


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