“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.

“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 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.

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Please download it from the news page of http://www.relax-well.co.uk or from http://www.amazingphage.info

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