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Research Outline
Prepared for Maricel S. | Delivered September 25, 2019
Bacteriophage Treatment
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Goals
Provide an understanding of whether
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
s
are good antibiotic replacements, as well as the potential of phage therapy treatment
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Early Findings
One study
noted that
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
s
have both potentially detrimental and beneficial effects when used for disease treatment and management.
It was noted that because
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
s
have e
cological and evolutionary impacts
on their hosts, they can both be used to kill bacterial pathogens and thus therapeutic, but can also increase antibiotic resistance in hosts.
Phage therapy,
the process of treating bacterial infectious diseases with
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
s
both addresses and may increase challenges in antibiotic resistance of bacteria.
One case study
shows
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
therapy to be successful in treating a recurring infection of a knee joint and related chronic
o
s
t
e
o
m
y
e
l
i
t
i
s
of the femur. The phage therapy successfully treated the infection, which had been drug resistant.
Another report
notes that
b
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
s
may be the most promising alternative to antibiotics, but that there is still a limited amount of research or regulation in the area, meaning execution of clinical trials may be less effective and the treatment may take longer to be adopted.
Another issue
with
b
a
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
treatment may be that phage-resistant mutant bacteria emerges as a result, but this issue could be addressed with combined use of phages and antibiotics.
B
a
c
t
e
r
i
o
p
h
a
g
e
treatment as a
combined technique with antibiotics
was especially useful in controlling
U
T
I
s
as the phages have a long period of survival in urine.
One
phage treatment case
that made news recently was the treatment of cystic fibrosis suffer Ella
B
a
l
a
s
a
, who was treated successfully for her lung infection after she didn’t respond to IV antibiotics.
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