Re: Bacteriophage Therapy – Will Phages Replace Antibiotics?

An interesting article. However one question springs to mind. Almost everyone on this forum seems to live with their head in the sand like the proverbial three wise monkeys. There are the silver people who think that silver can destroy ANY microorganism when it cannot. Antibiotic resistance extends to silver just as much as any synthetic Antibiotic and microorganisms have had far longer to adapt to silver. Some bacteria can shrug off silver like it does not exist, it is that useless!

All the research done with silver tests planktonic bacterial cells, a none preferred state for most microorganisms. Bacterial prefer to form biofilms because it offers them many chances to adapt whereas with single cells they either live or die. Bacteria in a biofilm have many layers and depths. Cells nearer to the surface might be destroyed by Antibiotics or phages but deeper cells will make use of the discarded DNA to update their genetic information so that they are not prone to the threat. This gives them many chances to get it right something which planktonic cells do not get. If necessary they could totally rewrite their DNA so that a phage is no longer interested in them. If the phage can get inside then it might be able to destroy the bacteria but otherwise the phage is useless! The important part is that a phage does not free reign inside a biofilm because it is restricted in it's access.

Therefore I do not see phages as being a solution on their own. If combined with things to degrade the biofilm such as Quorum sensing inhibitors and enzymes then they might have more success. That might eliminate the need for working Efflux pump inhibitors which prevent microorganisms from eliminating antimicrobials.

It's unfortunate that most people seem to forget these things. Tweet