Why Do Bacteriophages Use Phage Therapy?

Phage therapy involves the use of bacteriophages to treat specific pathogenic bacteria. The bacteriophages infect or kill pathogenic bacteria upon encounter with them. In 1915, Frederick Twort discovered the viruses of bacteria (Abedon, 2011). The bacteriophage era began when Felix d'Hérelle published a seminal publication that demonstrated “un bactériophage obligatoire” (Abedon, 2011) Soon after, microbiologists began to include the phages idea into their ideas. Novel therapies are needed to kill pathogenic bacteria. Phage therapy offers an alternative to the antibiotic treatment of bacteria. Even though bacteria can gradually resist phage, the resistance will not be as pronounced as the resistance to bacteria. Phage therapy is specific

A vaccine is a weak or inactive form of a pathogen (something that causes disease). When the vaccine is injected into a person, it stimulates the production of antibodies to destroy the vaccine. Certain cells remember how to produce the

A vaccine is a preparation of dead or weakened pathogens that reintroduced into the body to stimulate an immune response. Vaccines are administered by medical professionals, usually as an injection but sometimes as a nasal spray or oral medicine. There are many different types of vaccines which are the following live-virus vaccines, killed-virus vaccines, Toxoids, and other types.

Whilst the study of Phage therapy was temporarily abandoned by the US and some European nations (due to the discovery of antibiotics) in Russia, Phage therapy is mainly used to fight against antibiotic resistant bacteria. They are also used for identifying bacteria ( a process known as Phage typing). It can also be used to prolong the freshness of food, as bacteria causes food to spoil faster. They can also be used as vehicles for vaccine delivery carrying vaccine antigens and reacting with their specific bacteria. This means that scientists are also trying to use Phages to combat cancerous diseases, modifying the biosynthetic machinery so that they target the mutated cancer

Today, vaccines are very common when needing to treat a disease. A vaccine is a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or more several diseases. A vaccine is acted as an antigen without inducing the disease. The most known vaccines are the DTaP vaccine, polio vaccine, MMR vaccine, and the influenza vaccine.

Although I understand the science behind why bacteriophage is an ideal for treatment especially with the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria, but my concerns are the pro and cons of this type of therapy. Is there a possibility of further infection or even worse will that infection cause a fatal result. According to an article in U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, that clinical trials show promising results, but that the treatments are not completely effective. (Nilsson, 2014) This is due to studies being done with few phages and with limited experimental groups and therapy has limitations. This therapy can only be effective with large amount of groups so that comparisons can be made between he different

A vaccine is a weakened or dead germ that is injected into the body to prevent a disease. The small amount that is injected allows the immune system to fight back and develops memory cells so it is ready to fight the actual disease.

There are several advantages to phage therapy with target specificity being one of the main ones. Most phages will only lyse bacteria of a particular species or a specific strain meaning that the human microbiota should not be affected. In contrast, antibiotics are less specific and so treatment usually disrupts this flora, allowing opportunistic bacteria to thrive. This specificity is also a limitation as the bacteria causing the infection needs to be determined otherwise the treatment is likely to be useless. Such problems can however be addressed with the use of phage combinations like ‘cocktails’ used in the above study.

The rise of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria have been appearing across the globe resulting in the Center for Disease control to classify it as an urgent threat. The cause of the multidrug resistance has related to the overuse of antibiotics. There are a limited number of antibiotics on the market today. With multidrug-resistant strains on the rise, it is difficult to find a new antibiotic to treat the infection. With bacterial infections once more being considered a threat, researchers have been frantically searching for alternative forms of treatment. This global concern has led to the reemergence of phage therapy, but little is known about the effects of phage therapy as well as how efficient it is at treat bacterial infections.

There are many differences between bacteriophages and bacterium. Bacteriophages (also known as phages) are viruses that are obligate intracellular parasites, therefore, need a specific host in order to for this virion to leave its dormant state. The bacterium serves as the host in which the virus inhabits, allowing for it to grow and replicate. According to the case study by Kari Mergenhagen, the virus also obtains and enormous size compared to the bacterium. It has special structures, such as, a protein coat (capsid) which is a nucleic acid genome. On the other hand, bacterium is not simply defined as being a host for phages. Bacterium is a microorganism which is unicellular, has cell walls, lacks of organelles and nucleus, and can reproduce

Vaccines are used to help your immune system by making antibodies to help fight diseases. The vaccines are used to mainly fight communicable diseases like the common cold, influenza, and many others. Some diseases only need one vaccine to last a life

A vaccine is an antibiotic that allows your immune system to grow stronger and “immune” by producing excess antibodies specifically for that disease allowing your body to fight against the disease better. Vaccines are created through taking the disease and putting it through a series of processes where the virus is weakened to a certain state that it does minimal damage to your body when injected. This process is put into 5 steps by originally creating the antigen, next they release the antigen and put it through a step where the isolate it from human growth protein, the third step is where they purify the disease. The fourth step is strengthening the antigen, and finally distributes the final product to the public for mass protection. The vaccines contain the disease themselves but in weakened state to prevent the disease from physically and chemically damaging your body. Back in 1796 Edward Jenner found immunity for small pox though the “use of cowpox material to create immunity to smallpox, quickly made the practice widespread. His method underwent medical and technological changes over the next 200 years, and eventually resulted in the eradication of smallpox.” (“Vaccine Timeline," n.d.) By 1885 the rabies vaccine was cured through a shot created by Louis Pasteur. This opened a whole new window for the idea of vaccines into society. Throughout time vaccines have been being perfected and have expanded their range to hundred of diseases and even some non-infectious

Antibiotic, or antimicrobial medication is used for treatment and prevention of a bacterial infection, which may inhibit or kill the growth of the microorganism. (1) These medications are used for two correlating therapies: empirical therapy and definitive antibiotic therapy. (1, 2) Empirical therapy is used for patients who have a proven or suspected infection in their body but the specific bacteria has not been identified. (2) During empirical therapy, an individual is given a broad-spectrum antibiotic that best suits the patient 's signs and symptoms; meanwhile, laboratory personnel will continue to identify and uncover the microorganism causing the infection, which may take several days. (2) After the microorganism has been identified,

Vaccination is the organization of antigenic material (an immunization) to fortify an individual 's resistant framework to create versatile safety to a pathogen. Over several years’ vaccination has helped us to eradicate several diseases and control many crucial diseases. This research paper generally deals with history of vaccine, their development and mechanism of vaccine, types of vaccine and why it is necessary.

The modern world is considerably lucky in the fact that vaccinations have been created and made readily available thanks to Edward Jenner and his development of the first vaccine for smallpox in 1796. Since the 18th century, there have been about fifty different vaccines created to protect humans against bacterial and viral diseases. A vaccine is a substance that can be administered through needle injections, by mouth, or by aerosol to stimulate the production of antibodies and supply immunity against one or a few diseases. The vaccine is prepared from the causative agent of a disease and is used to act as an antigen without activating the disease. There are many different