Brief overview on Bacteriophage therapy; Alternative to Antibiotics

TL;DR

Bacteriophage therapy offers a promising, safer alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, especially resistant strains, with ongoing clinical trials demonstrating its effectiveness and specificity.

Contribution

This paper provides an overview of bacteriophage therapy, highlighting its potential as an alternative to antibiotics and discussing current challenges and clinical trial results.

Findings

Phage therapy shows fewer side effects than traditional antibiotics.

Effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and biofilms.

Requires personalized phage libraries for different bacterial strains.

Abstract

The term bacteriophage means killer or eater of bacteria. They were initially discovered by F.W. Twort and later on, Felix d'Herelle unveiled them to the world in 1910. Phage therapy has arisen as a favorable option to conventional antibiotics by reducing the multinational problem of increasing antibacterial resistance. These virulent viruses particularly prey on and contaminate bacterial strains and aid in fighting bacterial diseases. Researchers are performing various clinical trials on the bacteriophage to tackle pathogenic bacterial infections, varying from typical illnesses to highly invulnerable biofilms that cannot be treated with antibiotics. The primary experiments demonstrated that phage therapy has fewer consequences than traditional antimicrobial drugs. It is safer to use and show results within a few days. Although phage therapy has a wide range of promising results, but it also encounters diverse obstacles. One is that they are host-specific and can merely be used for personalized therapy. As thousands of bacteria can cause disease, clinicians have to construct a library of phage viruses. For successful treatment, an analysis of versatility, stability, and immune interference related to bacteriophage is necessary. Phage therapy is an excellent substitute for antibiotics as it illustrates a living base for the treatment of infections and it is climate-friendly. It only targets the pathogenic cells and has less influence on the normal microbiota. Regardless of the challenges and problems, phage therapy is approved as a beneficial approach to combating contagious infections.