Topic
Phage therapy
About: Phage therapy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1826 publications have been published within this topic receiving 54821 citations. The topic is also known as: bacteriophage therapy & viral phage therapy.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: The method used to produce a personalized bacteriophage-based therapeutic treatment for a 68-year-old diabetic patient with necrotizing pancreatitis complicated by an MDR A. baumannii infection suggests that the methods described here for the production of bacteriophile therapeutics could be applied to similar cases and that more concerted efforts to investigate the use of therapeutic bacteriaphages for MDR bacterial infections are warranted.
Abstract: Widespread antibiotic use in clinical medicine and the livestock industry has contributed to the global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens, including Acinetobacter baumannii We report on a method used to produce a personalized bacteriophage-based therapeutic treatment for a 68-year-old diabetic patient with necrotizing pancreatitis complicated by an MDR A. baumannii infection. Despite multiple antibiotic courses and efforts at percutaneous drainage of a pancreatic pseudocyst, the patient deteriorated over a 4-month period. In the absence of effective antibiotics, two laboratories identified nine different bacteriophages with lytic activity for an A. baumannii isolate from the patient. Administration of these bacteriophages intravenously and percutaneously into the abscess cavities was associated with reversal of the patient's downward clinical trajectory, clearance of the A. baumannii infection, and a return to health. The outcome of this case suggests that the methods described here for the production of bacteriophage therapeutics could be applied to similar cases and that more concerted efforts to investigate the use of therapeutic bacteriophages for MDR bacterial infections are warranted.
718 citations
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01 Mar 2011TL;DR: The early historical and more modern use of phages to treat human infections is explored, in particular the little-reviewed French early work, along with the Polish, US, Georgian and Russian historical experiences.
Abstract: Phages as bactericidal agents have been employed for 90 years as a means of treating bacterial infections in humans as well as other species, a process known as phage therapy. In this review we explore both the early historical and more modern use of phages to treat human infections. We discuss in particular the little-reviewed French early work, along with the Polish, US, Georgian and Russian historical experiences. We also cover other, more modern examples of phage therapy of humans as differentiated in terms of disease. In addition, we provide discussions of phage safety, other aspects of phage therapy pharmacology, and the idea of phage use as probiotics.
711 citations
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01 Mar 2011TL;DR: This commentary considers aspects of phage therapy that can contribute to its safety, economics, or convenience, but in ways that are perhaps less essential to the phage potential to combat bacteria.
Abstract: Many publications list advantages and disadvantages associated with phage therapy, which is the use of bacterial viruses to combat populations of nuisance or pathogenic bacteria. The goal of this commentary is to discuss many of those issues in a single location. In terms of “Pros”, for example, phages can be bactericidal, can increase in number over the course of treatment, tend to only minimally disrupt normal flora, are equally effective against antibiotic-sensitive and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, often are easily discovered, seem to be capable of disrupting bacterial biofilms, and can have low inherent toxicities. In addition to these assets, we consider aspects of phage therapy that can contribute to its safety, economics, or convenience, but in ways that are perhaps less essential to the phage potential to combat bacteria. For example, autonomous phage transfer between animals during veterinary application could provide convenience or economic advantages by decreasing the need for repeated phage ...
657 citations
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TL;DR: This review considers phage therapy that can be used for treating bacterial infections in humans, domestic animals and even biocontrol in foods, and explores a regulatory framework for such an approach based on an influenza vaccine model.
Abstract: Viruses of bacteria, known as bacteriophages or phages, were discovered nearly 100 years ago. Their potential as antibacterial agents was appreciated almost immediately, with the first ‘phage therapy’ trials predating Fleming’s discovery of penicillin by approximately a decade. In this review, we consider phage therapy that can be used for treating bacterial infections in humans, domestic animals and even biocontrol in foods. Following an overview of the topic, we explore the common practice – both experimental and, in certain regions of the world, clinical – of mixing therapeutic phages into cocktails consisting of multiple virus types. We conclude with a discussion of the commercial and medical context of phage cocktails as therapeutic agents. In comparing off-the-shelf versus custom approaches, we consider the merits of a middle ground, which we deem ‘modifiable’. Finally, we explore a regulatory framework for such an approach based on an influenza vaccine model.
641 citations
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TL;DR: This review aims to provide an overview of the potential of phage therapy as a means of treating or preventing human diseases and to explore the phage Therapy state of the art as currently practiced by physicians in various pockets ofphage therapy activity around the world.
Abstract: Phage therapy is the application of bacteria-specific viruses with the goal of reducing or eliminating pathogenic or nuisance bacteria. While phage therapy has become a broadly relevant technology, including veterinary, agricultural, and food microbiology applications, it is for the treatment or prevention of human infections that phage therapy first caught the worlds imagination - see, especially, Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925) - and which today is the primary motivator of the field. Nonetheless, though the first human phage therapy took place in the 1920s, by the 1940s the field, was in steep decline despite early promise. The causes were at least three-fold: insufficient understanding among researchers of basic phage biology; over exuberance, which led, along with ignorance, to carelessness; and the advent of antibiotics, an easier to handle as well as highly powerful category of antibacterials. The decline in phage therapy was neither uniform nor complete, especially in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, where phage therapy traditions and practice continue to this day. In this review we strive toward three goals: 1. To provide an overview of the potential of phage therapy as a means of treating or preventing human diseases; 2. To explore the phage therapy state of the art as currently practiced by physicians in various pockets of phage therapy activity around the world, including in terms of potential
575 citations