Is virus the ultimate weapon against superbugs?

May 11, 2019 / BIOON / - antibiotics win the battle against resistant bacteria, but they may not win the war You may know that antibiotic resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs, have weakened doctors' ability to treat infections You may also realize that the number of new antibiotics on the market has dropped dramatically Some headlines suggest that humans are doomed to antibiotic resistance; even politicians and governments have joined in to compare the growing resistance to other common crises, such as climate change Despite these claims, antibiotic resistance is a serious problem As medical scientists, some people specialize in infectious diseases, they have been fascinated by the role of bacteria in human health and the potential of using viruses to treat bacterial infections Photo source: http://cn.bing.com what causes antibiotic resistance? Overuse of antibiotics is an important factor in antibiotic resistance Antibiotics are ubiquitous in the United States, and some patients need them to treat many different diseases Many doctors appease their patients because they don't know when to not use them, when to use them, and because there is no regulatory structure to limit their use Anyone with a prescription can treat any disease with any antibiotic, with few serious consequences Although some measures have been taken to reduce the use of antibiotics, the scope of the problem is still very large in the United States Some countries, such as Sweden, use incentives to encourage doctors to improve antibiotic use But in American hospitals and clinics, there is no such system The problem is not limited to humans; in fact, 70% of antibiotics are used in animals This means that humans can be exposed to antibiotics as long as they are exposed to animal products You may also have antibiotic resistant bacteria on your chicken legs as you prepare dinner Once bacteria develop antibiotic resistance, it will not disappear For example, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has evolved resistance to a variety of different antibiotics; however, MRSA still exists in hospitals and communities, although its spread can be reduced by limiting the use of antibiotics that lead to the emergence of MRSA Photo source: http://cn.bing.com alternatives to antibiotics another reason to look for alternatives to antibiotics is that we share our microbes with people and pets living close to us; therefore, other people can infect these superbugs without taking antibiotics One of the less obvious reasons for developing new therapies is that our bodies are home to a large microbial community, including bacteria, called our microbial community These microbes are necessary for our health Antibiotics that kill harmful bacteria also kill beneficial ones There is an alternative to antibiotics, but it was abandoned by the medical community many years ago Another method of the original phage therapy story is called phage therapy, which uses the virus that infects the bacteria, the phage, to kill the pathogenic bacteria Phages were frequently used to treat life-threatening infections in the early 1920s-1940s and the pre antibiotic era But phage therapy has many disadvantages First, the efficacy of phages is unpredictable A phage that can kill harmful bacteria in one person, but not another Therefore, the hospital has to collect a large number of phages to kill the pathogenic bacteria in all patients In contrast, antibiotics such as vancomycin can kill a whole group of bacteria predictably Another disadvantage is that phage collection needs to be maintained Therefore, hospitals should not only keep a large number of phages, but also keep their shape So medicine chose antibiotics for convenience, and only recently did it look back in any meaningful way Comeback? So why is phage therapy coming back? Antibiotic resistance is an obvious answer, but it doesn't explain the whole story Just because of the mention of phage therapy, doctors may be considered "quack doctors", because early attempts have neither exciting success nor huge failure Like any treatment, it has its own advantages and disadvantages Photo source: http://cn.bing.com however, now scientific progress can lead us to find out which phage is most suitable for killing a specific microorganism As the crisis of antibiotic resistance intensifies, doctors and scientists have a good opportunity to jointly develop effective phage therapy The evidence for this comes from recent landmark cases of phage therapy It is a good example that a research institution has successfully treated a doctor with life-threatening infection and serious prognosis caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria Another key case in the mass media continues this trend Doctors may be able to treat any pathogenic bacteria; it's just a matter of finding a suitable phage A large part of phage therapy research is devoted to "phage screening" - microbiologists study soil, ocean and human body carefully to identify phages with the potential to kill bacteria that plague us Despite the slow progress of these studies, the new research reveals the potential of phage therapy in medicine You may think that in all the phage screening and landmark cases, we will always use phage therapy, but we did not One of the advantages of using phage antibiotics is that because they have been used for decades, we have a lot of knowledge about their safety Doctors calculate the risk-benefit ratio of antibiotics every day, but they can't do the same for phages Does anyone really want doctors to inject them with viruses to treat bacterial infections? When the question comes up in this way, I doubt it's anyone's choice But remember that phages are naturally formed They are on every surface of your body They're in the ocean and the soil, in your toilet and sink They are indeed everywhere Photo source: http://cn.bing.com therefore, putting phages into the body to kill bacteria is something that nature does every day As far as we know, our bodies are not damaged It is estimated that phages kill half of the world's bacteria every 48 hours, and may be the most effective antimicrobial agent When doctors give us a phage instead of getting the same phage from the sink at home, do we really have a compelling reason to worry? Only time will tell Unfortunately, as antibiotic resistance continues to rise, time may not be on our side Reference materials: [1] are viruses the best web for fixing superbugs? [2] antivirus use in the United States, 2017: progress and opportunities [3] lessons learn during 20 years of the Swedish strategic program against antivirus resistance [4] superbugs' as big a global thread as climate change and warfare '[5] cohabiting family members share microbiota with one another and with their dogs 【6】 The antibiotic resistance crisis: part 1: causes and threats 【7】Ian Phill ips et al Does the use of antibiotics in food animals pose a risk to human health? A critical review of published data Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkg483 【8】Robert C Owens et al Hospital-Based Strategies for Combating Resistance Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 42, Issue Supplement_4, 15 April 2006, Pages S173–S181, https://doi.org/10.1086/500664 【9】Ari Robicse et al Duration of Colonization with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 48, Issue 7, 1 April 2009, Pages 910–913, https://doi.org/10.1086/597296 【10】Xavier Wittebole et al A historical overview of bacteriophage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial pathogens Virulence https://doi.org/10.4161/viru.25991 【11】Robert T Schooley et al Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00954-17 【12】 Fighting Bacterial Infection With Viruses?