Scientists are dusting off a long-forgotten weapon to cope with modern bacteria
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-are-dusting-off-a-long-forgotten-weapon-to-cope-with-modern-bacteria/2017/06/30/3476ced0-4aeb-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html
Antibiotics typically kill all bacteria, including beneficial ones. But phages are bacteria-specific, attacking only a single species of bacteria. Phages enter bacterial cells, where they replicate, causing the cells to rupture. This releases additional phages into the body, making the treatment more potent.
The key is matching the right phage to the right bacterium. Scientists say it is likely that every bacterium has a phage — or many phages — that can kill it.
This involves taking a patient’s multidrug-resistant bacterium, growing it on a “lawn” of agar (a jellylike substance used to culture microorganisms) with an overlay of phages, then looking for “holes” in the lawn where the phages have killed the bacteria. Once identified, the phages are plucked, grown in large batches and purified. Depending on the site of the infection, they are then delivered orally, topically, intravenously or into the respiratory tract by aerosol administration.