Antibiotic resistance is becoming a major crisis leading to the inability to cure infections. Additionally, biofilms have become a major source of healthcare-associated infections, and most antibiotic compounds are ineffective in treating them. Currently, one of the most promising solutions for the emergence of antibiotic resistance crisis is phage therapy.
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that invade bacterial cells, disrupt their metabolism, and cause the bacteria to lyse. The key benefits of phage therapy are: i) phages are highly strain-specific with low impact on the commensal or environmental flora; ii) phages multiply at the infection site and disappear concurrently with the target pathogen; iii) phages are natural products devoid of apparent toxicity; iv) phages are relatively easy to isolate and genetically improve; v) phages can co-evolve with their bacterial host to kill resistant bacteria; and vi) phages can efficiently destroy biofilms.
The use of phages as antibacterial agents began in the early 20th century. However, despite its success, it was abandoned in the Western world once chemical antibiotics were discovered, and their use was continued only in Eastern European countries. Currently, phages have been regaining interest as therapeutic tools also in the Western world, and the first patients are once again being treated.
In my talk, I will describe the shared efforts of our team in Israel to implement phage therapy from the isolation of phages from the environment, via their characterization in the lab, the study of ex-vivo and animal models, to the treatment of the first human patients.