The contribution of neutrophils to bacteriophage clearance and pharmacokinetics in vivo.

A preprint abstract from biorxiv.org discusses the use of lytic bacteriophages to treat antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections. The study examines the role of neutrophils, the most abundant phagocytes in the body, in the pharmacokinetics of intravenously administered bacteriophages in uninfected mice. The researchers found that neutrophils have minimal impact on phage clearance, suggesting that neutrophil-mediated phagocytosis is not a major determinant of phage clearance. However, they observed substantial functional inactivation of circulating phages over time, indicating that circulating factors, rather than neutrophils, are responsible for inactivating intravenously administered phages. This research has not yet undergone peer review. [Extracted from the article]