Fig. 6: Inhibition of D. longicatena by phage in vivo.

A Murine phage therapy workflow. Six-week-old SPF WT C57BL/6 male mice (n = 15) were treated with four antibiotics by gavage for one week, washout for two days, then received D. longicatena RTGS0005 (10⁷ CFU) at Day 0. The mice of phage-treated groups (n = 5) were given phages at MOI 10 from Day 1 to Day 4. Saline was used as a vehicle to prepare bacteria and phage solution. The phage-free groups (n = 5) were given vehicle (saline) instead of phage, and the blank group (n = 5) received neither bacteria nor phages except vehicle (saline). Stools were collected 12 hours after each gavage. Created in BioRender. Chen, Wan. (2025) https://BioRender.com/3oldu7j (B) Normalized CFU in murine phage therapy of phage CPB1092 targeting D. longicatena RTGS0005. Ten mice were orally administered D. longicatena RTGS0005 on Day 0 and then divided into a phage-free control group (n = 5) and a phage-treated group (n = 5). Data are presented as bar charts showing the mean ± SD of normalized CFU for the initial cohort at baseline (Day 0, gray bar, n = 10), the phage-free control group on Day 3 (red bar, n = 5), and the phage-treated group on Day 3 (blue bar, n = 5). Normalized CFU was calculated by dividing the CFU count of each mouse by a mean CFU value of a separate blank group (n = 5) at the corresponding time point. All individual data points are superimposed on the plot. Statistical significance between the phage-free and phage-treated groups on Day 3 was assessed using two-sided Mann-Whitney test, and the exact P value is shown. ns, not significant. C-D Relative abundance of (C) Dorea and (D) Dorea phages in murine samples during phage therapy of phage CPB1092 targeting D. longicatena RTGS0005. Mice were assessed at baseline (Day -1 and Day 0; gray, n = 10). From Day 1, mice were divided into a phage-free control group (red, n = 5) and a phage-treated group (blue, n = 5). Data are presented as box plots where the center line indicates the median, the box boundaries represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, and whiskers extend to 1.5 times the IQR. All individual data points are superimposed on the plot. Statistical significance between the phage-free and phage-treated groups at each time point (Day 1−4) was assessed using two-sided Mann-Whitney test, and the exact P value is shown. ns, not significant.