What comes to mind when you hear the word “bacteria”? Most people, if not all, will answer “disease,” “sickness,” or “bad for the health.” What not all people know is there are actually both good and bad bacteria and some bacterial species are probiotic – bacteria that are helpful to its host. In fact, bacterial infections can be treated with bacteriophages: viruses that have the ability to infect and fight harmful bacteria, culminating in their destruction. Bacteriophage or phage therapy is therefore very useful in various fields like medicine, veterinary science, dentistry, and even agriculture.http://www.newbalanceoutlet.cc
History of Phage Therapy
Bacteriophages were discovered by two people: the English bacteriologist Frederick Twort in 1915 and the French-Canadian microbiologist Felix d’Herelle in 1917. Immediately after their discovery, the thought of using phages to fight bacterial infections was already apparent. D’Herelle began testing the therapeutic effects that phages may have on chickens and cows first and the tests were successful. Eventually, human tests were conducted and the development of phage therapy became more extensive especially with the foundation of the Eliavia Institute in 1923; the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly began the commercialization of phage therapy in the US during the 1940s. During the Second World War, phages were used to treat bacterial diseases among soldiers of the Soviet Union, particularly gangrene and dysentery. The development of antibiotics in the 1950s led to a temporary setback on phage therapy as the use of antibiotics became more favourable. However, there has been a renewed interest in the development and employment of phage therapy in more applications.
Advantages over Antibiotics
Viruses and bacteria evolve over time and can develop a resistance to antibiotics. In theory, this resistance can also apply to phages, but it may be less difficult to overcome compared to antibiotics.
Because phages are target specific, meaning only a one or very few bacterial strains are targeted upon, it is easier to develop new phages than new antibiotics. A time period of only a few days or weeks is needed to acquire new phages for resistant strains of bacteria, whereas it can take years to obtain new antibiotics. When resisting bacteria evolve, the assigned phages also evolve, so when super bacterium appears, an equivalent super phage fights it as long as the phage is derived from the same environment.
Compared to antibiotics, phages go deeper into the infected area. Antibiotics, on the other hand, have concentration properties that quickly decrease as they go below the surface of the infection. The replication of phages is concentrated on the infected area where they are needed the most, while antibiotics are metabolized and removed from the body. In addition, secondary resistance does not happen among phages, but happens quite often among antibiotics. Secondary resistance is acquired and occurs when there aren’t enough blood drug levels.
Certain infections in people and experimentally infected animals have been proven to be more effectively treated with phage therapy than using antibiotics. Since 1966, the average success rate of studies that used phages in various ways (systematically, topically, intravenously, or orally) is from 80 to 95%, with minimal or no allergic and/or gastrointestinal side effects. The infections studied are from E. coli, Acinetobacter, Psuedomonas, and Staphylococcus aureus. Multiple side effects like allergies, intestinal disorders, and yeast infections have been observed when using antibiotics.
Fighting and destroying bacterial infections (both in humans and animals) are the primary applications of phage therapy, but it can also be employed for other uses. It can be the key to fighting the NDM-1, a gene that can be included in the DNA of bacteria, enabling them to resist antibiotics. Waste water from sewage systems are not really considered waste because it is a rich source of phage strains for various kinds of bacteria that lead to the most up-to-date medicines. Skin grafting for extensive wounds, trauma, burns, and skin cancer can also be improved by using phage therapy to lessen the Psuedomonas aeruginosa infection. Some experiments for cells in tissue culture have also discovered antitumor agents in phages. Bacteria cause food to spoil faster, and phages have been studied for their potential to increase the freshness of food and decrease the incidents of food spoilage.