The mycobacterium
13. June 2022 20:31 Robert Klatt
- Multi-resistant bacteria always cause more deaths
- With many infections help bacteriophage
- It’s regarding specialized virusesdie individual bacterial strains kill without attacking beneficial bacteria or body cells
- Soon also starts in Deutschland one clinical studyin the people with cystic fibrosis With bacteriophage treated will
Multidrug-resistant bacteria are causing more and more deaths. According to a study, phages (viruses) can help with many of these bacterial infections.
Pittsburgh (USA). Multi-resistant bacteria be in the medicine to a growing problem. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) include antibiotic resistance now one of the leading causes of death globally. Next to new antibiotics can also so-called The bacteriophage help once morest multi-resistant bacteria. It’s regarding virusesthat infect bacteria.
Bacteriophages attack bacteria via special receptors and then multiply in their cells. The bacterial cell then bursts from the mass of newly produced viruses and the bacterium dies. Because phages specialize in certain types of bacteria, they do not destroy beneficial bacteria or body cells during therapy. The primary problem with bacteriophage therapy is therefore finding the appropriate phage.
Hardly any studies on bacteriophages to date
So far, bacteriophages have mainly been used in the former Eastern bloc. In western countries, since the development of antibiotics, bacteriophages have hardly been used or researched in everyday clinical practice. In view of the multi-resistant pathogens, however, this has changed in recent years. Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh published in the journal around 2019 Nature Medicine a single case study with promising results. They then received inquiries from doctors from all over the world.
Bacteriophages once morest antibiotic-resistant mycobacteria
Now researchers have the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California in the specialist magazine Clinical Infectious Diseases published the results of another study with bacteriophages. The study involved 20 subjects infected with antibiotic-resistant mycobacteria, mostly strains of the species Mycobacterium abscessus.
16 of the 20 subjects suffered from the metabolic disease mucoviscidosis, also known as cystic fibrosis (CF). With this disease, the mucus can no longer drain from the lungs and many other organs. This creates optimal living conditions for bacteria that cause inflammation and other health problems.
Treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus infections
According to study leader Graham Hatfull, Mycobacterium abscessus infections are a nightmare for doctors. “Although they are not as common as some other infections, they are among the most difficult to treat with antibiotics,” explains Hatfull.
The scientists therefore administered different bacteriophages to the subjects by injection or inhalation. Study participants, including a five-year-old child, received at least 1 billion units twice a day for six months. The treatment was successful in eleven of the 20 patients (55%). Four patients (20%) had no improvement and five patients (25%) had equivocal results.
Bacteriophage without side effects
side effects were not observed in the clinical study. Also evidence that the bacteria caused by the treatment a new Resistance developed, do not exist. “This gives considerable weight to the impression that the therapy is safe,” states Hatfull.
It is still unclear why the treatment did not work for all test subjects. Hatfull sees the phages used as a possible reason. “We haven’t yet figured out how to find or make phage that will catch every strain of these patients. That remains one of the most important challenges for the future,” says the scientist.
Clinical study in Germany
A clinical study with bacteriophages is also scheduled to start in Germany in the second half of the year. According to Holger Ziehr, Head of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM), the test persons should only be people with cystic fibrosis who are infected with the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. As part of the study, you will receive a combination of three phages that cover most of the P. aeruginosa strains. The first results are to be published in the coming year.
In addition, Ziehr describes the results of the current study as “impressive”. “This result cannot be argued away,” says Ziehr. According to the phage expert, the extremely heterogeneous subjects and the different infections and pathogen types in particular make therapy more difficult.
Nature Medicine, doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0437-z
Clinical Infectious Diseases, doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac453
