SIMPLY PHAGE
SimplyBetter is on a mission to simplify complex medical jargon, transforming people's understanding of body and mind. Here, we simplify phage therapy, why it's so important and the potential impact.
Phages, and how they fit with antibiotics...
There are more phages on the planet than any other organism: approximately one trillion bacteriophages for every grain of sand in the world!
Phages or bacteriophages are a solution for antimicrobial resistance: they are bespoke, naturally occurring organisms found everywhere, designed over millions of years by evolution to target and kill specific bacteria (microbes) including those that can be fatal in humans. They can be combined with antibiotics to keep them working into the future.
But, first of all, we need to understand antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance…
Antibiotics, where they came from and what we use them for?
Space invader microbes live in a dog eat dog world. They produce chemicals which fight in competition against one other. So, microbes, to be successful and thrive must withstand the bombardment of stresses from their other microbe peers. In other words, to survive the threat of destruction.
100 years ago humans discovered we could kill disease causing microbes using these same chemicals. Medical science has called them antibiotics. Scientists have used this knowledge to design and manufacture new antibiotics, in our relentless battle against bacterial infections.
HOW DO ANTIBIOTICS WORK?
1. Bashing up the outer casing of the that surrounds and protects the bacteria cell. Antibiotics like penicillin work in this way.
2. By stopping manufacture of machinery eg computers and furnishings to allow everyday activities.
3. Halting reproduction. A single bacteria cell can produce two of themselves, from the original one cell, every 20mins!
4. Stopping the bacterial machinery production lines (ribosome protein manufacturing) and killing the cell.
GLOSSARY
Antimicrobials - Treatments that kill pathogenic microbes and allow us to survive disease. Antibiotics are an example.
Phage libraries - the Citizen Phage Library is one of a number of matchmaker libraries that houses the phages that best targets & kill our enemies. They can easily be found in rivers and wastewater.
Compassionate treatment - this refers to doctors being permitted to use yet to be approved medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening conditions when no other options are available to them. Phages can be used in this way in Belgium, the USA, Georgia and Australia.
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
If just one bacteria is not killed, and all the other bacteria survive, only this resistant individual is able to survive, to be the ‘fittest’, to reproduce and become a dominant strain: Darwin and natural selection in action!
Bacteria (microbes) are very promiscuous and are able to quickly swap genes coding for resistance between different species. This has led to the global spread of “superbugs”, bacteria that are resistant to many types of antibiotics, and, in some cases, all antibiotics.
The mechanisms to resist each antibiotic are found in their instruction manual (genome/DNA) and this can flex depending on the environment they are in.
How do AMR bacteria avoid the action of antibiotics?
1. With enzyme scissors that chop up the antibiotic to make it useless.
2. By using a pump to remove antibiotic from the bacteria.
3. By changing the design of the factory production lines (protein factories = ribosomes) so the crowbar (i.e. the antibiotic) can’t be wedged in to the production line and halt production.
4. By altering the shape design of the outer casing of the microbe.
Why is AMR such a problem in hospitals?
The environment where AMR is most likely to happen is in our hospitals where antibiotics are in constant in the the bodies of the weak and vulnerable.
Global societies must avoid indiscriminate misuse whilst maintaining their readiness for keeping patients in the most delicate states alive.
Phages: how do they complement antibiotics?
Phages work by acting as ‘moon-lander’ crafts that bind to their prey and inject their contents to make them burst apart; in doing so they can clear up the infected area of the body. Giving them with antibiotics makes the likelihood of killing the infection much higher.
CITIZEN PHAGE LIBRARY
Developing therapeutic phages to fight antimicrobial resistance with Citizen Science.
