The first report about what is now known as a bacteriophage was published
more than a century ago. In 1896, Hankin reported that something in the
waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India had marked antibacterial
action and could pass through a very fine porcelain filter. However, it
was another 20 years before a British bacteriologist, Frederick Twort,
actually isolated filterable entities capable of destroying bacterial cultures
and producing small cleared areas on bacterial lawns (1915). 2 years later,
Felix d'Herelle, a French Canadian microbiologist working at the Pasteur
Institute in Paris, reported the same phenomenon. D'Herelle called
the virus bacteriophage or bacteria-eater (from the Greek phago meaning
to eat). D'Herelle promoted the use of phages as therapeutic agents for
the treatment of infectious diseases. The first reported application of
phages to treat infectious diseases of humans came from Bruynoghe and Maisin
in France in 1921, who used bacteriophages to treat staphylococcal skin
disease. Phages have been used, since that time, for prophylaxis and therapy
in the United States (early 1930s) and, for the last 50 decades, in eastern
Europe and in the Soviet Union. The international literature contains several
hundred reports on phage therapy, with the majority of the publications
coming from researchers in the former Soviet Union and eastern European
countries.In the English language, the most detailed descriptions have
come from the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Medicine of the
Polish Academy of Sciences. Phages were administered orally, applied directly
to wounds, or given in eye drops to more than 550 patients. Reported success
rates ranged from 75 to 100%, depending on the pathogen. Some investigators
reported the successful treatment of experimental E. coli infections
in mice using phages, and even suggested thepossible superiority of phages
over antibiotics. The ability of Salmonella and E. coli phages
to reduce
colonization in/prevent death of experimentally-infected chickens also
has been reported. During the long history of using phages as therapeutic
agents throughout eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (and, before
the antibiotic era, in the USA), there have been virtually no reports of
serious complications associated with their use. Phages are extremely common
in the environment, are regularly consumed in foods, and have been shown
to be unintended contaminants in a variety of medications, including vaccines
commercially available in the United States. In this era of increasing
antimicrobial resistance, such potential therapeutic options are, not inappropriately,
being increasingly explored
Specialties :
PlyG lysin from the gamma phage kills Bacillus
anthracis
vegetative cells and germinating sporesref
PlyV12, a bacteriophage lytic enzyme, was isolated and shown to
effectively kill both Enterococcus
faecalisand
Enterococcus faecium
(including vancomycin-resistant strains), as well as other human pathogensref.
Cpl-1, the lytic enzyme of a Streptococcus
pneumoniae
bacteriophage (C(1), a lytic bacteriophage infecting group C streptococci,
is one of the earliest-isolated phages, and the method of bacterial classification
known as phage typing was defined by using this bacteriophage : lysin
is specific for groups A, C, and E streptococciref),
as an intravenous therapy for pneumococcal bacteremia in a mouse modelref
a purified pneumococcal bacteriophage lytic enzyme (Pal) is able
to kill 15 common serotypes of pneumococci, including highly penicillin-resistant
strainsref.
vegetative cells and germinating sporesref
