An overview of the current state of phage therapy for the treatment of biofilm-related infections

Bacterial biofilms are involved in many chronic and difficult-to-treat infections. Phage therapy against infectious biofilms is becoming a promising strategy, as suggested by the increasing number of publications demonstrating the efficacy of phages against in vitro formed biofilms. However, the translation between in vitro results to in vivo phage therapy outcome is not straightforward due to the complexity of phage-biofilm interactions in clinical contexts. Here, we provide a critical overview of the in vitro studies of phages for biofilm control of clinical pathogens, followed by the major outcomes and lessons learned from the recently reported case studies (between 2018 and 2021) of phage therapy against biofilm-related infections.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit. LPM and ACB also acknowledge the financial support from FCT through the grants SFRH/BD/07494/2020 and SFRH/ BD/133193/2017, respectively.