Searching for alternatives to antibiotics.
Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are viruses that can infect disease-causing bacteria. Phages are the most abundant organisms on earth and can provide a useful alternative to antibiotics.
Phages were discovered before antibiotics, but their potential to help treat infection has recently gained attention as bacteria continue to gain resistance against antibiotics.
But unlike antibiotics that kill all bacteria (including the beneficial ones in our gut), phages are more precise, capable of targeting specific strains of bacteria. This makes phages less harsh, non-toxic and natural, compared to treatment with antibiotics.
Researchers at IOI are developing methods to use phages as biocontrol agents to prevent the transmission of drug-resistant bacteria in different environments such as hospitals and farms.
Phages can be an efficient and cost-effective way to rapidly address the high burden of AMR, especially in low-and-middle income countries.
Ongoing phage projects at the IOI include:
- Global epidemiology and characterisation of bacteriophages isolated from flies from hospitals around the world.
- Construction of a public phage library targeting Gram-negative bacteria.
- Use of phages as biocontrol agents.
- Development of phage-derived proteins to combat AMR.
- Studying the evolutionary aspects of bacteriophage resistance.
Phages are natural predators of bacteria and when isolated against clones that are related to drug resistance, they can be a useful tool to combat the antimicrobial resistance. At the IOI, we are creating a public phage library that targets drug-resistant bacteria. Our goal is to transform these phages into simple, easy-to-use, and low-cost alternatives to combat the spread of antibiotic-resistant clones. In the future, there is also potential to use them as alternative drugs to antibiotics.
