Phage therapy as an alternative or complementary strategy to prevent and control biofilm-related infections

The complex heterogeneous structure of biofilms confers to bacteria an important survival strategy. Biofilms are frequently involved in many chronic infections in consequence of their low susceptibility to antibiotics as well as resistance to host defences. The increasing need of novel and effective treatments to target these complex structures has led to a growing interest on bacteriophages (phages) as a strategy for biofilm control and prevention. Phages can be used alone, as a cocktail to broaden the spectra of activity, or in combination with other antimicrobials to improve their efficacy. Here, we summarize the studies involving the use of phages for the treatment or prevention of bacterial biofilms, highlighting the biofilm features that can be tackled with phages or combined therapy approaches.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the project PTDC/BBB-BSS/6471/2014, the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684). This work was also supported by BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.