Improved antibacterial efficacy of bacteriophage-cosmetic formulation for treatment of Staphylococcus aureus in vitro

Currently phages are used as alternative antibiotics for treating pathogenic bacteria causing skin disease. However, the efficacy of pure preparations of phage is greatly reduced due to its short longevity on surface of skin. supplemented cosmetic phages [0.5% phage conc./cosmetic] significantly increased phage longevity on skin surface. The phages were isolated by the single plaque assay from the infected skin showing edema and erythema symptoms. The isolated phages had plaques with 3-5 mm diameters and a distinct translucent spreading halo. The morphological phage particles were cubic nucleocapsid with 65-75 nm across with short contractile tails. The supplemented cosmetic phages reduced the bacterial growth to 95.45%, compared with free phages and non-supplemented cosmetic 86.1% and 77% respectively. The phage containing cosmetic was applied for disease treatment and increased the phage longevity from 24 to 100 h and preserved initial phage population. This work indicated the enhanced antibacterial efficacy of fortifying specific bacteriophage in cosmetics to be a promising formulation for efficient treatment of skin diseases.