Global Superbug Map Aids Phage Therapy in the Battle Against Antibiotic Resistance

Scientists create groundbreaking global ‘superbug map’, paving the way for scalable phage therapy to combat antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals

Thursday October 17th, 2024: The fight against antibiotic-resistant infections has received a significant boost with the publication of the world’s first ‘superbug map’ for one of the most dangerous superbug species, Acinetobacter baumannii, a breakthrough that will aid the development of lifesaving bacteriophage (‘phage’) therapies.

In a paper published today in the journal Cell, an international collaboration led by scientists at the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre in Szeged, Hungary, analysed the genomes of over 15,000 cases of Acinetobacter baumannii, tracing the global existence and spread of this critically antibiotic-resistant bacteria commonly found within hospitals.

The team identified the dominant bacterial strains from around the world, discovering that the ‘superbug species’ spread relatively slowly and remained dominant for approximately six years in a given country. The breakthrough highlights the timeframe that hospitals may have to apply pre-emptively prepared bacteriophages for treatment as ‘off-the-shelf’ region-specific phage therapies that could address up to 80% of local infections.

“Currently many bacterial infections cannot be effectively treated and phages offer a promising alternative or complementary therapy to combat the rising number of hospital-acquired antibiotic-resistant infections,” said Balint Kintses, lead author of the paper and Group Leader at the Laboratory of Translational Microbiology at HUN-REN Biological Research Centre. “This is where our map offers a groundbreaking solution for phage therapy. By analysing how superbugs spread and dominate in hospitals, we can now prepare region-specific phage treatments in advance."

One of the key challenges of phage therapy is that each patient requires a specific phage to treat their infection. Therefore, phages are currently used to treat mostly chronic infections where there is time to find the matching phage to target the infection-causing bacteria, a process that is expensive and time-consuming.

However, the greatest need for phage therapy is in acute, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections where patients die within days if a treatment cannot be found. The ‘superbug map’ enables the production of pre-emptive phage treatments based on the Acinetobacter baumannii strains most likely to cause infections in each region.

The hope is that after turning these research findings into real-world treatments, healthcare providers will be able to significantly improve the management of infections that develop quickly and don’t respond to antibiotics.

“To reach this strategic goal, the superbug map will help clinicians identify patients for phage therapy clinical trials, accelerating the validation and approval process for these treatments,” added Balint Kintses. “Researchers using the mapping framework will be able to access global data and share insights, contributing to a worldwide effort to combat antibiotic resistance through precision medicine approaches and bring phage treatments to the patients who need them most.”

"Our framework offers a map and a compass that could revolutionise the phage therapy market by streamlining clinical trials and boosting global collaborations. We are the first to map a global superbug to support phage therapy," explained Balázs Papp, co-researcher and Group Leader at Lendület Laboratory of Computational Systems Biology at HUN-REN Biological Research Centre. “The ability to scale phage therapy is the key to making it a viable solution for hospitals worldwide.”

"This paper shows that an approach that directly addresses the diversity of phage targeting necessary for good therapeutic design,” said Prof Jonathan Iredell, Director of Phage Australia. “It also illustrates the open spirit of collaboration that is essential to success, and the generous provision of these novel therapies as a public good."