Difference between revisions of "Phage therapy"

== History of Phage Therapy ==

:The initial discovery bacteriophage has been subject to speculation to who was the first. In the western world, Ernest Hankin, a British bacteriologist, first reported observing unidentified antibacterial preventing the spread of cholera (Vibrio cholerae) in the rivers Ganges and Jumna in India in 1896 [mini]. These unidentified antibacterial remained of unknown origin until bacteriologist Frederick Twort hypothesized that the cause of inhibition of bacterial growth was from viruses [M13] in 1915. Twort would be unable to continue pursuing his findings due to various reasons, among them financial difficulties.  

:D'Herelle first observed bacteriophages as 2-3mm "clear spots" which was a pathogenic agent to coccobacillus bacteria cultures studying locusts in South America and Africa in the early 1900s [M18]. He would use his observations of  bacteriophages to perform one of the first phage therapy techniques on severe hemorrhagic dysentery outbreaks among French soldiers stationed at Maisons-Laffitte in the summer of 1915 [M18, Mini]. On September 15, 1917 Felix d'Herelle would present his findings in the Academy of Sciences naming this phenomena 'Bacteriophage' after the Greek words "bacteria" and "phagein", which means to devour [M18].   

:Continuing on the study of bacteriophages, d'Herelle starts researching on the effects of phage therapy on a 12-year-old boy with severe dysentery in 1919 at the Hôpital des Enfants-Malades in Paris, under the hospital's Chief of Pediatrics, Victor-Henri Hutinel. The patient's symptoms ceased after a single administration of d'Herelle's anti-dysentery phage, and the boy fully recovered within a few days [DHERELLE-BOOK]. The efficacy of the phage preparation was "confirmed" shortly afterwards, when three additional patients having bacterial dysentery and treated with one dose of the preparation started to recover within 24 h of treatment.

:Bacteriophages soon lost interest in the western world as antibiotics and penicillin was discovered, however research continued in the eastern Europe in the Soviet era. Two prominent research centers established are The Eliava Institute (EIBMV) in 1923 and The Hirszfeld Institute (HIIET) in 1952. Both continue to research bacteriophages presently. Due to observation of increasingly drug resistant bacteria, bacteriophages has brought to light again in the fight against disease.