Study Finds Soil Bacteria Can Live on Antibiotic Diet Antibiotics normally kill bacteria. But scientists have discovered that hundreds of bacteria living in dirt not only resist being killed by antibiotics -- they use the antibiotics as food.
I heard this on the radio today. They were also talking about PHAGE therapy,they do this is Russia where they use a particular VIRUS to kill a particular bacteria, they have done it for 50 years over there.
People from the states are going over there- because they cannot kill certain bacteria here, people who have serious problems and infections for 5-10 years.
They mentioned a guy who had a bacteria infection in his foot and had to have it amputated.. but instead went to russia and did the PHAGE therapy and it saved his foot.
What about lyme and this sort of thing, using a very particular virus to kill it... could this work??
have you heard of this before.. has anybody ever suggested it??
Posted by CD57 (Member # 11749) on :
Yes, I've heard of this....AndrewinCA on here brought it up once. I have also heard there is no phage available for Bb. How about the co-infections? How do we get more info?
Posted by lymewarrior03 (Member # 3891) on :
I am guessing from doing a quick search that there is ongoing research into phage therapy with lyme.
Until very recently there was no known bacteriophage that targeted Borrelia. Therefore there was no known mechanism of lateral gene transfer during the bacteria's life span. It has now been determined that the bacteriophage phiBB-1, targets Borrelia burgdorferi, and that lateral gene transfer does in fact occur (Eggers et al.). Eggers et al., the authors of the paper on the newly discovered phage, suggest the the role of the phage within the infectious cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi ought to be investigated, as it might contribute to the virulence of the bacteria.
Phage Therapy May Help Fight Resistant Bacteria by Tony Russomanno SAN JOSE (CBS 5) ― In the crumbling, former Soviet state of Georgia, stripped of nearly everything of value, is a newly re-discovered medical technology of unlimited potential.
The technology involves the use of bacteriophages...phages, for short... a virus that attacks and kills specific bacterium.
David Hodges of Phage International in Los Altos says the virus therapy is essentially 100 percent effective at stopping infections caused by new antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
"Hospital staph infections, skin infections, it's acquired in the community as much as it's acquired in the hospitals," said Hodges. "It's a very prevalent and difficult to kill bacteria strain."
Phage International teamed with doctors at a clinic in the former Soviet state to treat patients from the United States, because the therapy is not approved by the FDA. The clinic is one of the few places in the world that continued to practice phage therapy after the discovery of antibiotics.
Here's how it works. The phage virus attaches to the surface of the bacteria cell. It injects its DNA into the cell itself. The virus is alive, and this is how it reproduces. Within a just few minutes, the DNA becomes a phage factory, hijacking the bacteria's own reproductive mechanism and turning out new copies of the virus, until they explode through the cell wall, killing the bacteria and releasing phages that rampage in search of other identical cells, and only those cells, until all the bacteria are gone.
Although phages are everywhere in nature, the therapy requires constant monitoring by doctors and microbiologists to insure the bacteria are properly paired with their matching specific phages.
The virus could also be used to combat e-coli contamination of leafy vegetables.
"That is a real challenge," said Hodges, "because the second you say virus and we're going to put it on your food, of course the red flag goes up."
FDA approval could take several years.
Meantime, the once-abandoned Soviet therapy is getting new attention in the West.
Posted by adamm (Member # 11910) on :
Can they bioengineer new phages to treat diseases?
Posted by cottonbrain (Member # 13769) on :
fascinating! thanks for posting this
Posted by lymewarrior03 (Member # 3891) on :
Ya, this is pretty interesting. Too bad things aren't farther along for lyme. Wonder how safe it is and what happens after the virus eats the bacteria....does one then have to kill the virus??