bacteriophage to cure diseases.

[tejaswini]

is it possible that a bacteriophage can be used to cure diseases caused by the bacilli?since they donot cause any damage to the human cells, it should be a possibility. i think so.

[ecoli]

sounds familiar... I think there have been other threads on this before. > search function.

[herpguy]

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18724&highlight=bacteriophage Is one of them.

[Gumby]

This is quite the opposite of bacteriophages, but a while back I read that when E. coli bacteria were injected into brain tumors of mice, the size of the tumor reduced by 50%(not sure on that number) within a month.

 

I think bacteriophage could be helpful in medicine with some genetic engineering. Take flesh eating bacteria for example. If someone could engineer a virus to target and destroy flesh eating bacteria, I bet a lot of lives could be saved.

[tejaswini]

back I read that when E. coli bacteria were injected into brain tumors of mice' date=' the size of the tumor reduced by 50%(not sure on that number) within a month.

 

.[/quote']

how? i mean how did the e coli cure the tumor?and do u know the scientific name of the flesh eating bacteria, please do tell me.

[Immunologist]

Ok, first, yes bacteriophages can be used to cure diseases. But mostly, they are used in topic agents (on the skin) to kill bacterias that would infect open wounds. In the glorious time of USSR, a dried powder made out of dehydrated (not killed) bacteriophages was of common usage among the soldiers to apply on wounds and prevent infection.

 

Second, as bacteriophages kill bacterias,we DO NOT have to engineer them to do this job. They will NOT infect human. The reason why we don't inject them in the blood or other is because they could create an immune response as they are made out of proteins.

 

Third. Escherichia coli (E.coli) is in fact the flesh-eating bacteria.

 

Fourth. This story of injecting E.coli into a brain tumor is quite dubious, although not impossible. But if it worked (reduced the tumor size), it has more to do with the very robust immune response that occured after this injection. The engaged immune response would have been strong and therefore also "noticed" the tumor and start attacking it.

 

I think it answer every questions for the moment.

 

See you!

[Steph]

Ok' date=' first, yes bacteriophages can be used to cure diseases. But mostly, they are used in topic agents (on the skin) to kill bacterias that would infect open wounds. In the glorious time of USSR, a dried powder made out of dehydrated (not killed) bacteriophages was of common usage among the soldiers to apply on wounds and prevent infection.

 

Second, as bacteriophages kill bacterias,we DO NOT have to engineer them to do this job. They will NOT infect human. The reason why we don't inject them in the blood or other is because they could create an immune response as they are made out of proteins.

 

Third. Escherichia coli (E.coli) is in fact the flesh-eating bacteria.

 

Fourth. This story of injecting E.coli into a brain tumor is quite dubious, although not impossible. But if it worked (reduced the tumor size), it has more to do with the very robust immune response that occured after this injection. The engaged immune response would have been strong and therefore also "noticed" the tumor and start attacking it.

 

I think it answer every questions for the moment.

 

See you![/quote']

 

I just want to state that you made a mistake, the bacteria commonly know as "flesh-eating" are Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep-A).

also, another reason, which is linked to the one you gave, for not injecting bacteriophages, is that, you have some phages that kill bacteria by lysing them. this releases every single immunogenic material that was normally contained inside the cell, including something called LPS (lipopolysaccharide). LPS will ellicit a vigorous immune response, but if there is too much LPS, you will get a response that is way too strong - - -> Anaphylactic shock (which can kill you).

[Gumby]

how? i mean how did the e coli cure the tumor?and do u know the scientific name of the flesh eating bacteria, please do tell me.

 

Apparently my memory was foggy... It isn't the actual E. coli bacteria, but a toxin that is produced by E. coli.

 

Take a look:

http://www.sickkids.on.ca/releases/bacterial.asp

 

Second, as bacteriophages kill bacterias,we DO NOT have to engineer them to do this job. They will NOT infect human. The reason why we don't inject them in the blood or other is because they could create an immune response as they are made out of proteins.

 

My idea behind the engineering them was coding them so that they target specific proteins on specific species of bacteria.

[Steph]

 

My idea behind the engineering them was coding them so that they target specific proteins on specific species of bacteria.

 

They already do that. You, however, have to find the right Phage.

[Immunologist]

Yeah, sorry Steph, you are absolutly right, E.coli is not the flesh-eating bacteria, but is the source of hamburger disease, I wrote too fast!

 

I would not be too impressed with someone having its flesh eaten by an enterobacteria... You must break the skin barrier for it to reach tissue and as it lives in your intestines, I really don't want to imagine such an accident...

 

More info:

http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/info/necro_e.html

[sophster]

This is a really interesting paper on the use of bacteria specific tumour targeting and killing

 

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/26/15155

 

The use of bacteria for targeting to large, inacessible, necrotic tumours is really interesting.

[mattbimbo]

i have never heard of it before either. there is a more recent paper by the same group with more immunological analysis and the description of a 'bystander' effect.

 

the key thing seems to be the selective germination of the bacteria in the hypoxic environment of the tissue. if you are curious as to what this entails, there was a thread about this recently.