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Bacteriophage use against infectious disease

bacteriophage infectious disease

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#1 Sdescon

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Posted 16 February 2012 - 11:07 AM


As many of you know, many microbial infections are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. Some examples include infections caused by MRSA (resistant to most legacy penicillins), VRE (resistant to vancomycin), and multi drug resistant strains of tuberculosis. Newer agents are holding the line for now, ie Linezolid for VRE, Vancomycin and Ceftaroline for MRSA. However, eventually, the bacteria will become resistant to these newer agents.

An interesting possibility in treating these ever evolving pathogens is to use their own weapon against them: biological adaptability. A bacteriophage is a viral particle that attacks bacteria, and may co-evolve and change itself to circumvent bacterial resistance against the viral onslaught.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Phage_therapy

No method is perfect, and this one is no exception, as there are many unique challenges and relative inexperience in the western world in incorporating this technique in the arsenal against infectious disease. Many phages are also highly specific and not as adaptable when bacteria mutate and become resistant.

Considering that phages have such promise, have there been any serious efforts directed to develop this into an accessible treatment option in the west?

Edited by Sdescon, 16 February 2012 - 11:13 AM.


#2 Hip

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Posted 27 December 2012 - 07:56 AM

The only place in the world that does commercial bacteriophage therapy is:

Phage Therapy Center, in Tbilisi, in the Republic of Georgia.
http://www.phagetherapycenter.com

People can either visit this center in the Republic of Georgia, or, after having identified the bacterial infection you have from blood or other sample you send them, the Phage Therapy Center will send you the precise bacteriophage viruses needed to wipe out your bacterial infection. The bacteriophage viruses are sent in a liquid solution, and all you have to do is take this solution orally when it arrives.

There appears to be a small office of the Phage Therapy Center in Queens, New York. See here:
http://www.eliavapha...om/contact.html

The former Soviet Union pioneered phage therapy for military reasons (for treating infected battlefield wounds). The Phage Therapy Center I believe is the last remaining center of bacteriophage expertise from the former Soviet.

A real pity nobody has taken this up in the West.

Other bacteriophage links:
http://amazingphage....mages/forum.htm

Edited by Hip, 27 December 2012 - 08:01 AM.


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#3 zorba990

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Posted 13 January 2017 - 04:48 AM

Bumping this thread as life extension just introduced a phage product.
More info here:http://www.lifeexten...-Health/Page-01

"This article describes a novel way of optimizing probiotic efficacy.

Most people in the United States have likely never heard of phage therapy. It was discovered in pre-World War I Eastern Europe, and for much of the pre-World War II era, it was thought to be a promising approach to controlling bacterial illnesses.4-6

In the 1940s, industrial giants like Eli Lily and L’Oréal developed bacteriophage “cocktails” aimed at treating a variety of bacterial infections. But the advent of antibiotics quickly cost phages the spotlight, though their effectiveness has never been in question.7

Phage therapy uses bacteriophages, which are submicroscopic packages of DNA or RNA enclosed in a protein envelope that selectively target harmful bacteria.

The name bacteriophage literally means “bacteria eating.” A bacteriophage attaches itself to a bacterial cell wall and then destroys the host bacteria.

Bacteriophages are ubiquitous in nature, meaning they can be found almost everywhere—from soil, hot springs and the ocean depths to the animal and human body.8

The name bacteriophage literally means “bacteria eating.”
Phages are a common and important component of gut flora and are found in various other parts of the human body such as the mouth and skin.8,9 Phages are currently used in the food industry to control disease-causing organisms.10-12

Numerous phages are classed as GRAS—or “generally recognized as safe”—and are commonly used for a variety of different applications, from controlling Listeria in cheese and E. coli in meat and on food-contact surfaces, to Salmonella in food.

With the targeted use of bacteriophages, it is possible to seek out and effectively reduce specific populations of unhealthy organisms that have taken over the intestinal microbiome.

The use of bacteriophages allows an exceptionally specific approach to eliminating detrimental bacteria. This is in direct contrast to antibiotics, which employ a mass-killing technique that eliminates healthy and detrimental bacteria, leaving us vulnerable to attack by other organisms.13

By removing common pathogenic bacteria in one’s gut, bacteriophages enable beneficial probiotic bacteria to thrive, allowing them to more effectively rebalance the microbiome.

When phages are combined with probiotics in animal models there are huge reductions in the targeted harmful bacteria with a simultaneous increase in beneficial bacteria."




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