Phage therapy News and Research

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Scientists explore bacterial immunity to better understand infectious disease

Patients with cystic fibrosis are often infected by pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that infects the lungs and prevents breathing, often causing death.

8 Jan 2019

Doctors use bacteriophages to treat patient with multi-drug resistant bacterial infection

The married professors were spending their Thanksgiving holiday in Egypt when the husband, Thomas L. Patterson, Ph.D., got very sick very quickly, experiencing fever, nausea and a racing heartbeat. By the time Patterson was accurately diagnosed with a highly multi-drug resistant bacterial infection, he was near death.

4 Oct 2018

Scientists find key link between viruses and inflammatory bowel diseases

A study led by a researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reveals a key connection between viruses and inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

23 Jul 2018

Researchers present evidence of phage cooperation when attacking CRISPR-containing bacteria

CRISPR, or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, are an essential part of bacterial immunity designed to defend against foreign DNA. In bacteria, CRISPR acts just like it does in human cells as a pair of scissors, in their case with the goal of cutting strands of infecting DNA.

20 Jul 2018

Novel delivery system for bacteriophages could offer new way to battle lung infections

A new delivery system for bacteriophages - viruses that selectively attack harmful bacteria - could help give doctors a new way to battle lung infections that threaten older patients and people with cystic fibrosis.

17 Jul 2018

UC San Diego launches new bacteriophage therapy center

With microbial resistance to antibiotics growing into a major global health crisis, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with national research institutions and private industry, are leveraging hard-won expertise to exploit a natural viral enemy of pathogenic bacteria, creating North America's first Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics

22 Jun 2018

Researchers use novel phage therapy to treat patient infected with multidrug-resistant bacterium

Scientists and physicians at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, working with colleagues at the U.S. Navy Medical Research Center - Biological Defense Research Directorate, Texas A&M University, a San Diego-based biotech and elsewhere, have successfully used an experimental therapy involving bacteriophages -- viruses that target and consume specific strains of bacteria -- to treat a patient near death from a multidrug-resistant bacterium.

25 Apr 2017

Overall balance of bacteria on skin may be key factor for acne development

Researchers, led by Dr Huiying Li, an associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, used over-the-counter pore cleansing strips to obtain skin follicle samples from 72 individuals: 38 with acne and 34 who didn't have the disease.

6 Apr 2017

Phage therapy could offer safe and effective treatment option for Cystic Fibrosis lung infections

Scientists from the University of Liverpool have shown that phage therapy could offer a safe and effective alternative to antibiotics in the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis lung infections.

13 Mar 2017

Decision-making process of tiniest viruses could lead to better treatments for diseases

Humans face hundreds of decisions every day. But we're not alone. Even the tiniest viruses also make decisions, and scientists are researching how they do so, to help lead to better treatments for some diseases.

7 Feb 2017

Oral dose of phage cocktail prevents infection and cholera-like symptoms in animal model

Oral administration of a cocktail of three viruses, all of which specifically kill cholera bacteria, prevents infection and cholera-like symptoms in animal model experiments, report scientists from Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts in Nature Communications on Feb. 1.

1 Feb 2017

Study shows how phage-resistant cells become susceptible upon co-incubation with sensitive bacteria

Bacteriophages (phages) are probably the most abundant entities in nature, often exceeding bacterial densities by an order of magnitude.

11 Jan 2017

Researchers provide insights into how phages exhibit high level of precision in cell destruction

Phage therapy, which exploits the ability of certain viruses to infect and replicate within bacteria, shows promise for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

11 Jan 2017

Phage therapy may be solution to treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections

Phage therapy may be a solution to treating infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Since 2013, researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland have collected bacteriophages to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, and hope to start clinical phage therapy trials in the near future.

16 Nov 2016

Scientists use insect model to reveal therapeutic potential of C. difficile bacteriophages

University of Leicester scientists have previously identified the potential of using a bacteriophage cocktail to eradicate Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and in this research, using an insect model, they show that their prophylactic use can prevent infection forming in the first place.

12 Sep 2016

Liposome nanoencapsulation can increase efficacy of bacteriophages in oral phage therapy

Scientists at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Catalan Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology have developed a nanoencapsulation system with a liposome coating in order to increase the efficacy of bacteriophages in oral phage therapy.

14 Jun 2016

University of Leicester researcher awarded grant to develop bacteriophages to target infant Shigella

A University of Leicester researcher has been awarded funding to develop bacteriophages to target bacterial infant diarrhoea in the developing world where it causes significant mortality.

28 May 2016

Phage therapy in conjunction with antibiotics could help treat dangerous bacterial infection

Yale researchers were fishing for a new weapon against antibiotic resistance and found one floating in a Connecticut pond, they report May 26, 2016 in the journal Scientific Reports.

26 May 2016

Scientists evaluate phage-based therapy to battle antibiotic-resistant bacterial superbug infections

Flinders University scientists are looking to bacteriophages – highly specific viruses - as the as the best way to attack antibiotic-resistant bacterial superbug infections.

21 Apr 2016

Bacteriophage therapy: an alternative to antibiotics? An interview Professor Clokie

A phage is a virus that infects a bacterium. People often get very confused about what the difference is between a virus and a bacterium. A virus, like a bacterium, is also a microorganism, but unlike bacteria, it needs to have a host to be able to replicate and propagate.

2 Dec 2015