4 ms·

Can anyone comment on using phages to kill bacteria. I read the this was developed extensively in Russia during the Cold War.

by madengr 10y ago

skue 10y ago
Not a microbiologist nor an infectious disease specialist. However in med school I had an attending who liked to say, "The main difference between me and my patients is I know what page it's on." In that spirit, these seem like decent reviews: Short overview: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3400130/?report=classic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3400130/?report... Somewhat longer (PDF): https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Kuhl2/publication/41847852_Phage_Therapy_in_Clinical_Practice_Treatment_of_Human_Infections/links/02e7e51d41c14b3626000000.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Kuhl2/publication...
puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago
I had a little bit about that in med school. Interestingly the largest phage therapy center was (is?) in Georgia. This method was often used for resistant skin infections with e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, so the application was generally topical. There were also attempts at intravenous administration of phages, but I am not sure about safety concerns there (rapid lysis of bacteria resulting in a toxic shock, excessive antiviral response of the immune system and purification of phages all come to mind).
pella 10y ago
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy
Fomite 10y ago
Phages are being researched. This literally comes up in every single HN thread on antibiotics, so once more, posting my "Why Phages Aren't the Answer" shortlist. Note that I love phage therapy - this is the problems as seen by someone who doesn't think it's a dead end: Phage therapy is neat, it really is, but there are a couple major issues: - There is no such thing as a "broad spectrum" phage. You can't do empirical treatment using phages, and there's not really "off the shelf" phage therapy - it tends to be a bespoke creation for a particular infection. - There's some serious regulatory problems, similar to those experienced by fecal transplant treatments. We're not yet really equipped to think about handling evolving, custom microbes as a treatment. - Because of the first, it's going to require a considerable amount more lab capacity than most clinical settings currently have, and considerable delays until treatment. - There's also some biosafety issues around phage prep, but those are easily solvable. It's a great way to treat particularly resistant or hard to treat infections, but it's not a particularly great general solution. There's a reason it was abandoned in countries with easy access to antibiotics - they're just roundly superior in basically every respect.

Can anyone comment on using phages to kill bacteria. I read the this was developed extensively in Russia during the Cold War.

by madengr 10y ago

Can anyone comment on using phages to kill bacteria. I read the this was developed extensively in Russia during the Cold War.

skue 10y ago

Not a microbiologist nor an infectious disease specialist. However in med school I had an attending who liked to say, "The main difference between me and my patients is I know what page it's on." In that spirit, these seem like decent reviews: Short overview: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3400130/?report=classic https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3400130/?report... Somewhat longer (PDF): https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Kuhl2/publication/41847852_Phage_Therapy_in_Clinical_Practice_Treatment_of_Human_Infections/links/02e7e51d41c14b3626000000.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Kuhl2/publication...

puzzlingcaptcha 10y ago

I had a little bit about that in med school. Interestingly the largest phage therapy center was (is?) in Georgia. This method was often used for resistant skin infections with e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, so the application was generally topical. There were also attempts at intravenous administration of phages, but I am not sure about safety concerns there (rapid lysis of bacteria resulting in a toxic shock, excessive antiviral response of the immune system and purification of phages all come to mind).

pella 10y ago

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

Fomite 10y ago

Phages are being researched. This literally comes up in every single HN thread on antibiotics, so once more, posting my "Why Phages Aren't the Answer" shortlist. Note that I love phage therapy - this is the problems as seen by someone who doesn't think it's a dead end: Phage therapy is neat, it really is, but there are a couple major issues: - There is no such thing as a "broad spectrum" phage. You can't do empirical treatment using phages, and there's not really "off the shelf" phage therapy - it tends to be a bespoke creation for a particular infection. - There's some serious regulatory problems, similar to those experienced by fecal transplant treatments. We're not yet really equipped to think about handling evolving, custom microbes as a treatment. - Because of the first, it's going to require a considerable amount more lab capacity than most clinical settings currently have, and considerable delays until treatment. - There's also some biosafety issues around phage prep, but those are easily solvable. It's a great way to treat particularly resistant or hard to treat infections, but it's not a particularly great general solution. There's a reason it was abandoned in countries with easy access to antibiotics - they're just roundly superior in basically every respect.