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View Full Version : Phages may be key in bacteria battle



Terpe
27th March 2013, 09:40
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66413000/jpg/_66413229_m0900092-bacteriophage_virus-spl.jpg

They might look like sinister aliens, but these bacteria-munching viruses could be the next weapon in the fight against infectious diseases.

At the Eliava Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia, patients are treated for all kinds of bacterial infections with viruses called phages. In most places in the world antibiotics are given for these infections.

One patient says he regularly uses phages to treat a recurring eye infection.

"I've tried everything. I've even had operations on my eye but nothing helped. But this does help," he says.

Phages are naturally occurring viruses that kill bacteria. Once they get into bacterial cells the phages' DNA replicates until it kills the host.

Doctors in Georgia, and in other countries that were in the former USSR, have been using this therapy for 90 years. But medics and drug regulatory bodies in most places in the developed world have been reluctant to accept that it works.

Now that more and more bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics, the pharmaceutical industry is showing an interest in phage therapy

The director of the Eliava Institute, Dr Revaz Adamia, explains: "In 2008 I had six letters from people in the West asking for help, but now in the last two months I've probably had about 150.

"People want to be cured because they are desperate that they cannot be cured with antibiotics. Now they are looking at what they can do and they are coming to us."

Viral broth

Dr Martha Clokie, a microbiologist at the University of Leicester, carries out research into phages that could treat Clostridium difficile infections. She has tried therapy at the Eliava Institute.

"When I was in Tbilisi one winter I had tonsillitis, and every six hours I was given broth containing phages, which I gargled. Back in the UK my husband and child had the infection too and they were prescribed antibiotics. We all got better at the same time."

The institute also has some prepared phage solutions that it has worked out will kill the bacteria that cause common diseases, such as E.coli, which causes stomach upsets.

The therapy can be injected, sprayed on to the site of infection or swallowed. Each solution contains many types of phages, although usually just one attacks the bacteria.

Refrigerators

Dr Naomi Hoyle is an American who has trained to be a doctor in Georgia and now works at the institute.

She is married to the grandson of Dr Liane Gachechiladze, one of the scientists who kept the place going during the civil wars and economic chaos of the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dr Gachechiladze remembers: "We used to get a lot of power cuts in this neighbourhood which was a problem because phages have to be stored cold in refrigerators.

"But in the part of town where I lived, we would still often have electricity. So I bought an old fridge, and I used to take all the phages home and keep them safe in my kitchen."

Dr Hoyle says that one of the advantages of the viruses over antibiotics is that they target only the harmful bacteria.

"It doesn't have the side-effects or the negative aspects of antibiotics, like diarrhoea, because of its high specificity. It's not the silver bullet that antibiotics are, but it has its advantages as it works well on chronic infections. It enters the site and continues to do its work even after application."

Dr Martha Clokie says we may see the use of phage therapy outside the former Soviet Union in the next decade. "Large companies have done phase one and two clinical trials and are now finding ways to do phase three clinical trials, in which they will be seeing if the treatment works in patients.

"In the future we may see phages used to treat minor bacterial infections, and antibiotics kept for the serious life-threatening conditions."

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21799534

imagine
27th March 2013, 11:01
interesting, this is the first iv heard of this:xxgrinning--00xx3:

Terpe
27th March 2013, 13:43
interesting, this is the first iv heard of this:xxgrinning--00xx3:

Yes Stewart, it was the first I'd heard too.
Might be something important for our research scientists to consider, especially after the recent scare-stories about the
possible out come for antibiotics.

imagine
27th March 2013, 14:01
I wonder if it will come to be a supermarket food adative, to prolong shelf life
keeping the food bacteria free:Erm:

Terpe
27th March 2013, 14:28
I wonder if it will come to be a supermarket food adative, to prolong shelf life
keeping the food bacteria free:Erm:

You mean like that funny bromide additive that gets added to tea ? http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/theogrit/Large%20Smilies/1lg072tea.gif
:biggrin::biggrin:

imagine
27th March 2013, 14:30
You mean like that funny bromide additive that gets added to tea ? http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/theogrit/Large%20Smilies/1lg072tea.gif
:biggrin::biggrin:

what :yikes: I better drink coffee instead:biggrin:

Doc Alan
1st April 2013, 14:34
Bacteriophages ( bacteria-eating viruses ) occur naturally in billions – their weight in the oceans alone may be equal to the weight of human beings on earth !

• They have been recognized for about a century and their source for “ treatment “ in Georgia is the sewage where they live with their “ host “ bacteria. Public awareness outside the former Soviet Union is low. Interest declined after introduction of antibiotics 60 years ago. Phage therapy has yet to pass clinical trials demanded by regulatory bodies in the west, added to which pharmaceutical firms have been reluctant to get involved when significant profit seems unlikely.


• While the future of phage therapy is not yet clear, there is an undoubted problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and other organisms. New antibiotics are needed. Antibiotics fail partly because bugs develop resistance. It’s becoming harder ( and not profitable enough ) for the pharmaceutical industry to search for new antibiotics.

• Resistance is not, however, just due to bugs which beat responsible antibiotic use. In humans it MAY result from excessive antibiotic use in farm animals.

• Over-use and plain wrong use are significant factors. Patients should NOT demand antibiotic prescriptions from their doctors unless judged clinically necessary. Common colds don’t need antibiotics. If they ARE appropriately prescribed, the course should be completed – not stopped when the patient feels better.

• Even worse is buying antibiotics “ over-the-counter “ without prescription, not allowed in UK ; supposedly prohibited in southern European countries and the Philippines. Responsible pharmacists would not sell them. Selling on line is harder to control.

• Counterfeit drugs are in fact a growing global threat, and not just antibiotics but also others such as anti-cancer drugs, and “ Viagra “. They rarely work, may have serious side effects, and delay proper treatment.


• Even genuine “ generic medicines “ ( equivalent to the original “ innovator “ drug ) may be hard to obtain. They are much cheaper than the originals - but drug companies do everything they can, as well as patenting, to ensure only their drugs may be used – at extortionate prices unaffordable to many who need them.

• There is a particular problem with two serious and common infections.

• Tuberculosis ( TB ), covered in detail elsewhere, now has multidrug resistance, and extensively drug-resistant forms – among the worst countries for this being China, India, and Romania. Too few drugs, for too short a period, or the wrong drugs, are to blame.

• Malaria is the other worrying infection. Spread of drug-resistant malaria parasites in South East Asia, including Philippines, and Africa, are not helped by poor quality drugs. These lead to drug resistance and inadequate treatment - possibly a third of “ antimalarials “ in S E Asia, although it’s hard to obtain accurate figures ( http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(12)70064-6/fulltext ).

• The issue is global, but at least experts are aware of it, both in the UK ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-officer-annual-report-volume-2 ) and Philippines ( http://www.philstar.com/metro/2013/02/07/905742/fda-report-drugstores-selling-antibiotics-without-prescription ).

sars_notd_virus
1st April 2013, 17:04
very interesting thread:xxgrinning--00xx3:

alan_macd
1st April 2013, 19:45
I heard an article on Phages on the excellent 'Inside Health' on the BBC last week.

It's still available on iPlayer over here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01r9crt/Inside_Health_Alcohol_pricing_Phages_Cervical_smears_Swaddling_and_hips_Smart_beds/

The Phage bit is about 8 minutes in.