TB Phage therapy: Optimizing delivery methods of mycobacteriophages to target intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Project Narrative Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health problem resulting in 1.2 million deaths and 10 million new cases per year. Although drugs exist to cure TB, short course chemotherapy is a minimum six-month regimen. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the causative agent of TB) strains have developed resistance to all TB drugs and novel therapies are urgently needed. Previous studies have found mycobacteriophages can kill M. tuberculosis suggesting that these organisms could prove to be an invaluable resource to fight this global epidemic The goal of this proposal is to develop strategies to use these mycobacteriophages to shorten chemotherapy and kill drug resistant forms of M. tuberculosis.