靶向赞比亚资源有限实验室分离的碳青霉烯耐药肺炎克雷伯菌的裂解性噬菌体

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major cause of healthcare-associated and community-acquired infections, increasingly complicated by multidrug resistance (MDR) and carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKp). Phage-based approaches are attractive in such settings but rely on infrastructure and expertise, which are not widely available in low-resource laboratories. Here, we describe the isolation and preliminary characterization of two lytic K. pneumoniae phages, Zm_01 and Zm_02, from hospital sewer sludge in Lusaka, Zambia, using only routine microbiology equipment and simple adaptations of standard protocols. Clinical K. pneumoniae isolates, including MDR and carbapenem-resistant (meropenem-resistant) strains, were used for enrichment, double-agar overlay plaque assays, host-range screening and determination of efficiency of plating (EOP). Zm_01, isolated on a non-MDR but hypermucoviscous host, produced small, clear plaques and exhibited efficient plating on several MDR isolates, with EOP values higher on some MDR strains than on its original host. Zm_02, isolated on an MDR strain, formed large, clear plaques with halos, consistent with capsule-degrading activity. All work was performed without access to specialized equipment, such as a spectrophotometer, a shaker incubator or standard imaging equipment. These findings demonstrate that discovery and basic phenotypic characterization of therapeutically relevant K. pneumoniae phages are feasible in low-resource settings and provide a practical workflow that can underpin future functional and genomic studies, as well as the development of locally tailored phage-based interventions against MDR and CRKp infections.