ArticleNature medicine2026
Cross-reactive anti-prophage antibodies and bacterial heteroresistance implicated in phage therapeutic failure.
Article in Nature medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Vancomycin and phage COP-80B combination therapy for Staphylococcus epidermidis periprosthetic joint infections: a preclinical mouse study.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Antibodies targeting phage fiber and nozzle proteins impair Acinetobacter baumannii phage therapy by blocking infection and promoting immune clearance.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage Heteroresistance as a Cause of Treatment Failure in Urinary Tract Infections.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- When bacteriophages encounter macrophages during their journey through the human body.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Prophages and their interactions with lytic phages in the human gut microbiota and their impact on microbial diversity, gut health, and disease.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Phage therapy is an exciting strategy against antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections, but critical knowledge gaps regarding its clinical application persist. Here we present a case study of a 22-year-old male patient with cystic fibrosis, presenting with a recurrent, invasive and ultimately lethal Bordetella bronchialis infection, who failed compassionate-use phage therapy. Using longitudinal clinical samples, we found that our patient harbored pre-existing antibodies against active prophages induced from the genome of the infecting pathogen. Notably, these antibodies may have contributed to clinical failure by cross-reacting with and effectively neutralizing therapeutic phage. We also uncovered bacterial heteroresistance, characterized by bacterial subpopulations from the initial infection with reduced phage susceptibility, as a possible further contributor to treatment failure. These findings highlight the intricate interplay between host immunology, bacterial genetic diversity and phage biology, bearing broad importance for clinical phage therapy. Future phage therapy patients, especially those with chronic infections, should be screened for antiphage immunity and bacterial heteroresistance before phage treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.