Bacteriophagetherapy: An Amazing Alternative to Antibiotics in the treatment of MRSA and several other conditions

Bacteriophagetherapy 1

The increased movement away from antibiotics and towards alternative treatment options has brought back a treatment that has been for many years, shunned in favor of conventional medications. Bacteriophagetherapy is finally making a comeback, and in a big way too.

Considered as the next big thing to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, the therapy has been projected to be very efficient in curing conditions like methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that don’t respond to standard antibiotics.

What is Bacteriophagetherapy?

Bacteriophagetherapy refers to the use of viruses called bacteriophages to combat the bacteria present inside the body. Injecting an individual with these harmless viruses can help target and kill germs that are resistant to antibiotics. It has been found out that these bacteriophages are very effective in treating life threatening illnesses like sepsis in addition to treating antibiotic resistant illnesses like chronic nose, ear and throat infections.

How does Bacteriophagetherapy work?

Also called as bacteria eaters, bacteriophages are viruses that can help the body by infecting the infection causing bacteria. These deactivated viruses eat the bacteria from inside out, thus literally destroying them in the most natural and harmless manner (to the body) as possible. Bacteriophagetherapy is usually targeted to attack specific bacteria and so, help get rid of only specific bacteria while leaving the otherwise healthy bacteria (probiotic bacteria) untouched.

The bacteriophages that are selected for the therapy are also customized according to the patient’s body condition and specific bacterial infection. So far, success rates for individuals using bacteriophagetherapy to treat bacterial infections has been found to be at least 5 times higher than standard antibiotics or other phage products.

Advantages of Bacteriophagetherapy over Antibiotics

Antibiotics

Bacteriophagetherapy has been known to have a few advantages over standard antibiotics. For starters, they do not cause any harmful side effects like antibiotics that end up killing healthy bacteria along with the infection causing bacteria.

Antibiotics are hard to develop while bacteriophages are relatively easier to culture. This makes it easier for doctors to develop new phage for bacteria that have grown resistant to the previous one. As opposed to an antibiotic that can take years to develop, it takes only a few weeks to develop a new, stronger phage to combat the bacterial infection.

In sharp contrast to antibiotics which reduce in concentration below the surface, phages penetrate deeper and remain in the body until the infection is taken care of completely. They stop producing only when the target bacteria have been completely destroyed. This also reduces the risk of secondary infections as is so common in antibiotics

Disadvantages of Bacteriophagetherapy

Bacteriophagetherapy does come with its share of disadvantages that may prolong its use in mainstream medicine. For instance, bacteriophage based killing needs a lot more research as unlike antibiotics that target just one aspect of the bacterial growth/replication, bacteriophages replicate, evolve and attach themselves to the bacteria in order to kill it, paving way for a more complicated process.

Antibiotics enjoy wider target specificity whereas bacteriophages are highly localized. This means one will need to know whether the specific bacteria are sensitive to the virus that is intended to be used in the treatment. This increases the complexity of the treatment, with additional attention given to correct diagnosis for proper treatment.

Hurdles for Bacteriophagetherapy

Bacteriophagetherapy has a couple of hurdles to overcome before being accepted as a standard treatment option for bacterial infections. Funding remains the main hurdle with substantial investments needed in researching about potential viruses that could be used as bacteriophages.

More clinical data is also required to prove the efficacy of these viruses in controlled environments, a factor that requires additional funding again. Then there is the hurdle pertaining to the regulation and license of the phages that are used in these treatments. Appropriate measures need to be made to set up a regulatory framework that would prevent the misuse of these phages in the long run.

Lying dormant for many years, bacteriophagetherapy is a treatment for bacterial infections that has recently come back into the limelight. Although it poses several advantages in treating bacterial infections when compared to standard antibiotics, it needs to overcome several hurdles before being accepted into mainstream medicine.

Recent Articles:

Scroll to Top