ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Khatia Mikeladze1 , Nino Gachechiladze1, Nino Chikadze2, Irina Datikashvili-David3, Peter M Lydyard2,4, Nina Porakishvili2,4and Marina Tediashvili2,5
1Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Division of Immunology and Microbiology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
2School of Science and Technology, University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.
3Department of Hematology, Aversi Clinic, Tbilisi, Georgia.
4School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom.
5G. Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Article Number: 11446 | © The Author(s). 2026
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2026;20(3):2169-2180. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.20.3.09
Received: 13 February 2026 | Accepted: 26 June 2026 | Published online: 21 July 2026
Issue online: September 2026

The preprint of this article can be found here

Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by immune dysfunction and increased susceptibility to bacterial infections. Growing antimicrobial resistance has renewed interest in bacteriophage therapy (PT) as a complementary antimicrobial approach. However, naturally occurring anti-phage antibodies may affect its efficacy. This study investigated the upper respiratory tract microbiota of newly diagnosed, untreated CLL patients with no prior exposure to therapeutic phages. A total of 51 bacterial isolates were recovered from 22 CLL patients and 14 isolates from 12 healthy volunteers. Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant species, followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed the highest susceptibility (82.35%) to linezolid and moxifloxacin, whereas several S. aureus isolates showed reduced susceptibility to glycopeptides. Commercial phage preparations showed weak or no lytic activity against most isolates, particularly CoNS. In contrast, all 12 S. aureus isolates from CLL patients and healthy volunteers were susceptible to phage PSA-1 from the Pyophage preparation, with an efficiency of plating (EOP) of 0.7-1.0. Naturally occurring anti-phage antibodies were detected in both groups. The mean phage neutralization constant (K) was 0.64 ± 0.12 in CLL patients and 0.28 ± 0.06 in healthy controls, indicating variable pre-existing humoral immunity that may influence phage activity. These findings indicate that upper respiratory isolates from untreated CLL patients remain largely susceptible to conventional antibiotics. Phage therapy may represent a promising adjunctive strategy for managing S. aureus infections in CLL patients. Assessment of phage susceptibility and anti-phage antibody levels may optimize future phage-based therapies.

Keywords

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Bacterial Infection, Antibiotic Susceptibility, Bacteriophage, Phage Therapy, Anti-Phage Antibodies

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© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.