Are Bacteriophages the Perfect Counter to Superbugs?

We’ve talked about superbugs before. Resistant bacteria that are becoming a more prevalent threat in the industry. Recently though, reports have shown that thee superbugs have been coming back in a big way. And because of how they’re created, we’re becoming more and more ill-prepared to fight them off… So a new solution has to be reached.

The escalating crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has transformed what was once a manageable threat into a “silent epidemic” and a leading global cause of mortality. In an article published by Infection Control Today, a chilling reality was shown, by detailing the waning effectiveness of broad-spectrum antibiotics, and the subsequent solution in the works. So in this article, we’d like to take a look at that, and show a new side of the war on superbugs, and the world’s potential saving grace, the bacteriophage.

The News

How Did the Problem Arise?

The article itself highlights the appealing siren’s song of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which was their widespread efficiency and ease of use.

In essence, we created the problem through the solution, as weird as that may sound. With the creation and subsequent overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, our over-reliance became the root of the issue. Superbugs, the antibiotic resistant bacteria, are created from a built-up immunity to said antibiotics.

Antibiotics are designed to be “broad-spectrum,” which means they’re meant to eliminate a laundry list of bacteria all at once, not just for one specific type. And while they’re incredibly effective, it’s a flawed approach for one reason: it forces the bacteria to evolve. It works like this:

The frequent use of antibiotics contributes to the bacteria’s evolution, by creating more and more opportunities to become resilient to the cure. Bacteria evolve through AMR genes, which allow them to… well, resist.

Now, lots of once-treatable infections now require various complex and expensive treatments. And those treatments are also often ineffective. AMR is now becoming a sort of silent epidemic. These AMR infections have a body count in the millions, specifically 1.27 million deaths according to some sources in 2019. And for reference, the COVID-19 virus rounded up to 4.47 million deaths in 2020. A near third of the number in AMR deaths caused by a problem we created.

So, researchers are coming to the conclusion that to save lives, we need a radical approach.

What’s the Solution?

The answer may lie in a medical approach nearly 100 years old, largely abandoned in the West, but now making a critical comeback: Bacteriophage Therapy. Enter the lytic bacteriophage, (often shortened to “phage”). The phage is a virus that specifically and exclusively infects and rapidly destroys bacteria through a process called cell lysis, or cell bursting. Phage therapy was discovered around the 1900s, ironically the same era as antibiotics. But they got put on the bench because antibiotics were the simple to use cure-all.

Think of it like this:

Antibiotics are bombs. They’re dropped into a colony of bacteria, and it kills everything. But once the bacteria are exposed to the bombs, they learn to adapt and start to avoid them.

Bacteriophages, on the other hand, are assassins. They have a singular target to latch onto, one specific type of bacterium. They inject genetic material into the bacteria, and force it to create more phages like it. It does this until the bacteria cell bursts, hence, cell lysis.

Phages have a unique advantage over antibiotics: they co-evolve with the bacteria, because they are pathogens themselves. So when bacteria tries to adapt, the phage counters their efforts and makes a resistance effort much more difficult. And the article emphasizes that phages are microbe-specific, they don’t kill the beneficial bacteria that the body needs to survive. In turn, that reduces the risk of negative side effects that would normally come from the loss of essential bacteria and even secondary infections.

The Challenges that Bacteriophage Therapy Presents

Phage therapy is already showing impressive results. In countries where it has been seriously explored, retrospective studies have demonstrated success in eradicating challenging MDR infections in a significant percentage of patients.

However, moving from lab success to widespread treatment has its hurdles:

• Super-Specificity: A single phage often only kills a specific bacterial strain. To treat a broad range of infections, doctors need access to a huge phage bank. Phage banks house various types of phage cells for different kinds of bacteria. Along with that, they’d need the ability to rapidly match the right phage to the right patient.
• Complexity and Cost: Manufacturing, storing, and administering a live virus is technically complicated and costly compared to making a standard antibiotic pill.
• Lack of Standardization: We need randomized prospective clinical trials—the gold standard of medical research—to establish clear guidelines for when and how phage therapy should be used.

The scientific community is working to overcome the specificity issue by developing phage cocktails—combining multiple phages to broaden their effect. Furthermore, combining phages with antibiotics has shown synergistic results, making bacteria vulnerable to both and sometimes even re-sensitizing them to the antibiotic.

As multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections become more common, especially in hospital settings, phage therapy is transforming from an interesting science project into a life-saving public health priority. Continued investment in this new (yet old) treatment is essential to ensure that when a patient is facing a deadly superbug, we have a way to fight back.

A Call to Action

So a call to action is posed: to ensure these treatments become a reality, the lifesaver we need, it’s time to put it on trial. Well, actually, to perform trials, that is. The article shows that trials, when done properly, can prove useful. And that means that the trials adhere to rigorous standards. Only enrolling patients who show susceptibility to the bacteriophage treatment, while also ensuring a sufficient treatment period.

With a continued investment into the idea of the bacteriophage treatment, the possibility of this becoming a mainstream option to save potentially millions of lives around the world can become a reality.

Final Thoughts

The reality of AMR leaves us facing a silent pandemic of our own making. A crisis where our once-reliable antibiotics are steadily losing the war against evolving bacteria. While the challenges of scaling up bacteriophage therapy—from managing their specificity to securing rigorous clinical trials—are significant… The potential payoff is too great to ignore. Bacteriophages represent not just an old therapy rediscovered, but a scientifically elegant weapon that co-evolves with its target. Continued investment and dedicated public health focus on this solution are essential to move phage therapy from the lab bench to the patient bedside. Helping to ensure that we have a sustainable, effective countermeasure ready to fight the superbugs of tomorrow.

If you’d like to read the full story from Infection Control Today, you can find the link here. And you can check out our previous news article about the rise in superbugs from 2021 here. If you have any questions about anything else, give us a call at 704-966-1650. We’ll be happy to help you find what you need. You can also find links below to our various programs to help you with things like preventative maintenance, and more.

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