Coating phage-infected bacteria with polymer preserves phage vitality and improves oral phage therapy in mice (Nature Biomedical Engineering)

Wrapping individual phage-infected bacteria in a polymeric nanoscale coating preserves the vitality of the phages released on lysis, which otherwise have severely degraded tail proteins. In mice with bacterially induced enteritis and associated arthritis, phages released from orally administered coated bacteria had higher bioavailability and led to substantially better outcomes than uncoated phages.