Jan 24, 2007
Viruses Versus Bacteria
In 1919, long before antibiotics were commonplace and long before the notion of drug resistance had emerged, a doctor in the east European state of what is now Georgia, Felix d’Herelle, gave a patient suffering from severe dysentery a seemingly lethal concoction of viruses. You might think such a drink would kill the patient, but these were no ordinary viruses, they were bacteriophages, the nemesis of bacteria.
The patient was well again within a week.
Thus was heralded in the age of phage therapy. Different viral strains were selected for almost every bacterial infection. Diseases were cured. What’s more, because bacteriophages are themselves in some sense alive, they can evolve to keep up with any resistance efforts mounted by the bacteria.
So what happened to bacteriophages? Why are the news headlines filled with stories of new deadly bacteria, such as MRSA, and the newly re-emerged forms of tuberculosis? Why are we so worried about outbreaks of E coli, salmonella, and other bacteria. Surely, we have a whole armoury of trusty phages to turn to that can wipe out the rank and file of resistance microbes quickly?
Well, we don’t, somewhere between the discovery of penicillin and the second world war, chemical antibiotics fell in to pharmaceutical line as the treatment of choice to deal with bacterial infections. Never mind the fact that within months of the first dose of penicillin being given doctors were already seeing resistance. Today, there are thousands of antibiotics on the market, some are even available over-the-counter in southern Europe. Moreover, in countries that cannot really afford to use them, individuals receive short dose regimens that don’t cure their illness and provide new opportunities for bacteria to develop resistant genes.
Swiss science editor Thomas Häusler tells the story of bacteriophages and phage therapy from its humble roots to its dimly recalled heyday of the 1920s and 1930s in his book Viruses vs. Superbugs. He tells a tale of rancidity and disease that were all but eradicated by bacteriophages but that is gradually returning as hospital wards succumb to the resistant hoards and various sectors of society, such as drug users and the homeless are dealt a deadly blow as TB and other “old” diseases crawl the streets.
In the USA alone some 90000 people die each year from these so-called superbugs. The likes of the World Health Organization and other official bodies agree that things can only get worse. Perhaps a discovery from the middle of the Great War of 1914-1918 could take the place of the dozens of obsolete antibiotics stacked on pharmacy shelves and provide a final cure for the bacterial infections that until the 1960s the medical profession had all but consigned to the history books.
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Congratulations to Sciencebase regular Grace Filby who recently received an award for her work on understanding and promoting bacteriophages:
“A researcher’s work on the health value of bacteriophages has been rewarded with a Churchill Fellows Silver Medallion. Grace Filby, of Reigate, Surrey, travelled to Canada, Georgia, Poland and USA last year to see the application of phages in hospitals and clinics and explore the potential for 21st century medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria was first reported during the First World War. They started to be used as a treatment for infections before antibiotics became widely available. Her journeys were funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which offers grants to British citizens for travel-related projects that benefit society. The Trust, in June, recognised Filby’s work by awarding her the Churchill Fellows Silver Medallion.
It may also be of interest to read the following from the Polish Academy of Sciences where I met patients who had already been treated with phages for MRSA bone infections. The website states:
“The indications of the range of phage therapy are as follows: septicemia, regardless of their origin, postoperative infections, mucopurulent bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, pleuritis, furunculosis, otitis media, sinusitis, meningitis, acute lymphangitis, abscesses cutis and decubitus ulcer, pyogenic arthritis, myositis, osteomyelitis, suppurative infections after injuries of soft tissue, such as contusions, burns, pyogenic infection after bone fractures, and chronic infections of the urinary tract.”
The reference is http://www.iitd.pan.wroc.pl/phages/phages.html
Medical opinion from Prof. Bill V. Way, a dermatologist in the USA agrees with me that some of these would be very deep infections, not just shallow infections. The Polish scientists state categorically that more than 80% of patients were cured, and that detailed information can be obtained from Prof. Andrzej Gorski and Dr. Beata Weber-Dabrowska, e-mail: agorski@ikp.pl.
It will be interesting to hear the final result of the Phase 2 UK clinical trial nearing completion -
“Prof. Tony Wright: Pseudomonas is one of the very, very common problems we have with ear disease and discharge. Often unpleasant colour, can be very smelly, and I’ve seen patients as part of the trial who’ve had infections for twenty years. On and off, but more on than off.” In some instances there can be ulceration, mucopurulent discharge, and possible progression to very severe otitis externa, and in some very rare cases, even death.
Please may I bring some specific research to your attention? It is explained in my Winston Churchill Report, as I mentioned.
Please refer to page 5 regarding peritonitis: “The message is that phages could be applied therapeutically as prevention or rescue work, directly through the lymphatic system – without even having to go through the blood system. Indeed, the experiments with animals and case reports of human patients indicate that it works very quickly and efficiently. ” This is from research in Georgia.
Then on pages 10 and 11, you will find some exciting news about novel applications of bacteriophages. For example, regarding Alzheimer’s, “Administered through the nose, the phages can reach the brain directly and rapidly. Her (Prof. Beka Solomon, Israel) team’s research with mice demonstrates that phages can reduce the extracellular plaque and also brain inflammation without adverse effects. This may open the way for various new treatments of other neurological diseases including Parkinson’s Disease and Huntingdon’s Disease.”
You will also see that there is some recent Polish research (all published in English) “uniquely based on some inspiring observations that pieces of lung tissue bathed in HAP1 phages (lovely name!) had significantly less melanoma. The effect is clearly visible in photographs. The scientists state that the effect of phages is immunological. The research publications prove that, under well-defined circumstances, phages can have anti-metastatic activity (anti-cancer/anti-tumour).”
There is more news from Poland about anti-inflammatory diseases of the bowel and renal function. There is also the possibility of new therapeutic treatments or preventatives for a range of viral infections such as adenoviruses and the Herpes virus.
The other novel application that I am referring to in my report is that “research indicates that phages could help in treating oral bacterial infection and biofilm too”. There is a great deal of research and comment on this from the USA and the UK.
As I understand it, bacteriophages do only ‘infect’ and destroy bacteria – but now it is becoming clear that they have other beneficial functions too in the body, that we were not aware of when they were first discovered and named 90 years ago. Perhaps this would explain some misunderstanding in the past in the role of bacteriophages regarding oncological and immunological interactions.
So I stand by my comment: “They are certainly versatile little organisms, whose value has been vastly underrated so far.” Hope that helps with the discussion.
I would like to add that there is very strong evidence for phage safety, and also some very useful evidence that it is much cheaper than antibiotics for the treatment of staphylococcal infections – ‘about half the cost of 10-day therapy with vancomycin and several times less compared with the other drugs’ (Miedzybrodzki R et al, 2007.
http://www.relax-well.co.uk/less_expensive_than_antibiotics.pdf )
The web addresses for the report are http://www.relax-well.co.uk and http://www.amazingphage.info (with photo galleries, a blog, recorded interviews with scientists and clinicians, etc.)
Many thanks. I hope you can help by letting people know.
Thanks for your input Michael. As I understand it from Häusler’s book, that lack of antibiotics is not the only reason that Russian medics turned to bacteriophages. However, it does seem from the various case studies that shallow infections are most susceptible to bacteriophages while attacking an “internal” bacterial infection is a totally different matter. That isn’t to say that scientists shouldn’t continue to investigate antibacterial activity and putative anticancer activity. As we all know, there are no panaceas, just additional imperfect weapons in our battle against pathogens.
From looking at all the comments I think you all have a very inaccurate understanding of what bacteriophages are. They are viruses that only infect bacteria. They are incapable of infecting cancer cells or other cells for that matter. Bacteriophages are attacked by immune cells and destroyed easily inside the body. Phage therapy is limited to shallow infections and cannot be used to treat internal infections. Antibiotics were used in the west because they treated internal infections very well while the east [USSR especially] were forced to use phage therapy because of the lack of antibiotics available. Until we find a way to alter bacteriophages to the point where our immune system doesn’t attack them outright, the treatment can only be used on shallow infections and nothing more. Cancer is being treated by certain genetically modified viruses, they are just nothing like bacteriophages by any means. They are as related to bacteriophages as we are to house cats.