The Citizen Phage Library: Rapid Isolation of Phages for the Treatment of Antibiotic Resistant Infections in the UK.

Antimicrobial resistance poses one of the greatest threats to global health and there is an urgent need for new therapeutic options. Phages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria and phage therapy could provide a valuable tool for the treatment of multidrug-resistant infections. In this study, water samples collected by citizen scientists as part of the Citizen Phage Library (CPL) project, and wastewater samples from the Environment Agency yielded phages with activity against clinical strains BPRG1484 and BPRG1482. A total of 169 and 163 phages were found for and , respectively, within four days of receiving the strains. A third strain ( BPRG1486) demonstrated cross-reactivity with 42 phages already held in the CPL collection. Seed lots were prepared for four phages and a cocktail combining these phages was found to reduce melanisation in a infection model. The resources and protocols utilised by the Citizen Phage Library enabled the rapid isolation and characterisation of phages targeted against multiple strains. In the future, within a clearly defined regulatory framework, phage therapy could be made available on a named-patient basis within the UK.