Background: The emergence of multiple drug resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.TB) and extensive drug resistant (XDR) M.TB lay huge burden on TB endemic countries such as Iraq.
Objectives: Bacteriophage (phage) therapy can be used as alternative approach to tackle this problem.Patients and methods: Forty isolates of pycnogenol M.TB were cultured from TB-positive sputum specimens with three ATCC strains.
Phage passaging and biokinetic based techniques were used to optimize wild anti-M.TB phages.Three chemical, non genetic- designing techniques, tween-80, mycobacterial lysis buffer, and xyelen, were used to change the specificity of wild anti-TB phages towards phage-resistant target M.
TB.Results: Five wild anti-M.TB phages were isolated Front Loader Outer Tub Gasket and optimized.
The optimization techniques were successful in enhancing plaques size, clarity, burst size, and infective ratio.Chemical designing techniques succeeded to reorient specificity of 6 phages to new host bacteria.Conclusions: phage designing opens door wide for endless future applications of phage-based therapy, biocontrol and diagnosis.