A review on re-emerging bacteriophage therapy in the era of XDR

In the present medicine world antibiotic resistance is one of the key threats to universal health coverage. Researchers continue to work hard to combat this global health concern. Phage therapy, an age-old practice during the early twentieth century, was outshined by the discovery of antibiotics. With the advent of widespread antibiotic resistance, phage therapy has again redeemed itself as a potential alternative owing to its adeptness to target bacteria precisely. Limited side effects, the ability to migrate to different body organs, a distinct mode of action, and proliferation at the infection site, make phages a profitable candidate to replace conventional antibiotics. The progressive outcome of numerous in vitro studies and case reports has validated the clinical efficacy of phage therapy. The bright perspective of using phages to treat bacterial infections has fueled enormous medical research to exploit their potential as therapeutics. The gaps in the information about phages and the lack of consent for clinical trials is major hurdle for consideration of phage therapy. Crafting phage therapy as a reality in medicine requires a coordinated effort from different fraternities. With this review, we aim to emphasize the importance of phage therapy in modern medicine. This review explains their historical journey, basic phage biology, cross-talk with the host immunity, obstacles with phage therapy, and their possible remedies. Comprehensive data on the various significant clinical trials of phage therapy has been presented. We evaluated the efficacy of antibiotics and phage therapy in part and in combination, along with recent progress and future perspectives of phage therapy.