Fig. 1: Phage–ciprofloxacin coadministration drives rapid functional recovery during acute-on-chronic pulmonary exacerbation in cystic fibrosis.

a Timeline of clinical events (gray) and intravenous (IV) antimicrobial treatments (colored) for pulmonary exacerbation in an elderly patient with CF. Time is shown relative to the first IV phage dose (vertical dashed line, day 0); the second dashed line marks the end of all IV therapies (day 15). First-line colistin + ceftazidime was discontinued early due to acute kidney injury (AKI). b Posterior-to-anterior chest x-rays at hospitalization (left) and immediately before co-therapy (right) show persistent left-upper-lobe consolidation (yellow arrow). The reduced but unresolved opacity underscores the need for continued treatment. c Heatmap of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for patient sputum isolates (values in Table S2). Mucoid colonies (top) were largely susceptible, whereas nonmucoid colonies (bottom) were extensively drug-resistant. ND indicates MIC not determined d Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV₁, green) and percent-predicted FEV₁ (ppFEV₁, blue) over time. The dashed line denotes the mean baseline FEV₁ (1.49 ± 0.06 L).