Phage Therapy

• A recent study shows that the public is in favour of the development of phage therapy i.e bacteria-killing viruses as an alternative to antibiotics.

BACKGROUND

• There has been an increase in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) due to improper and over use of antibiotics.
• Antibiotics, while removing harmful bacteria, simultaneously decimates the microbiota.
• As per some estimates, AMR will result in death of 10 million people from drug resistance diseases every year by 2050.

ALTERNATIVE

• Bacteriophage therapy or simply phage therapy holds promise as an alternative treatment option.
  • Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect and replicate only in bacterial cells.
  • Bacteriophages were discovered by Frederick Willian Twort in 1915 (Great Britain) and Felix d’Herelle in 1917 (France).
• Each phage targets only a particular bacterial strain or species.
• Advantages
  • The most striking advantage of bacteriophage therapy is the ability to tailor treatment accurately to kill the pathogenic bacteria — provided the diagnostic procedures are highly accurate.
  • Phages are unlikely to damage human cells due to significant differences in bacterial cells and human cells.
  • Since they can replicate, initial dosage can be relatively small.
  • Inherently nontoxic as they are made up of nucleic acids and proteins.
• Issues
  • Lack of clinical trials,
  • time consuming process of finding right phages,
  • it will also require re-training of medical professionals to focus on accurately diagnosing specific pathogens.
  • difficulties in patenting phages as they are natural entities etc.