Health
Drug-resistant bacteria meets phage therapy
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 11, 2004
An improved understanding of bacteriophages may lead to a new technique to control drug-resistant bacteria.
A report in the Sept. 23 Nature said researchers found bacteriophages contain genes that allow them to quickly change their proteins to bind to different cell receptors. They believe this discovery could lead to the use of genetically engineered phages to treat bacterial infections that have become resistant to antibiotics.
"Phage therapy has been practiced for nearly a hundred years in parts of the world, even in the United States in the first half of the 20th century," said Jeffery F. Miller, PhD, professor and chair of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. "But now we think we can engineer bacteriophages to function as 'dynamic' antimicrobial agents. This could provide us with a renewable resource of smart antibiotics for treating bacterial diseases."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/10/11/hlbf1011.htm.
