Inal Jameel M
University Hospital Basel, Department of Research, Basel, Switzerland.
Arch Immunol Ther Exp (Warsz). 2003;51(4):237-44.
The concept of phage therapy to treat bacterial infections was born with the discovery of the bacteriophage almost a century ago. After a chequered history, its current renaissance is fueled by the dangerous appearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a global scale. As a mark of this renewed interest, the unanswered problems of phage therapy are now being addressed, especially for human use. Phage therapy in the agricultural, food-processing and fishery industries is already being successfully applied, and this review, whilst being aware of the potential drawbacks, emphasizes the need for further carefully controlled empirical data on its efficacy and safety in treating human and animal disease, especially in view of its numerous advantages over antibiotics. Finally the potential of phage therapy against bioterrorism and the emergence of second generation phage antibacterials based on phage-derived single-protein lysis systems are addressed.
近一个世纪前随着噬菌体的发现，用于治疗细菌感染的噬菌体疗法概念应运而生。在经历了波折的发展历程后，如今全球范围内出现的具有抗生素抗性的细菌，推动了噬菌体疗法的再度复兴。作为这种新兴趣的一个标志，噬菌体疗法尚未解决的问题目前正在得到解决，特别是针对人类应用方面。噬菌体疗法在农业、食品加工和渔业中已经得到成功应用，本综述在意识到其潜在缺点的同时，强调需要进一步获得关于其治疗人类和动物疾病的疗效和安全性的经过仔细控制的实证数据，特别是考虑到它相对于抗生素具有众多优势。最后，探讨了噬菌体疗法对抗生物恐怖主义的潜力以及基于噬菌体衍生的单蛋白裂解系统的第二代噬菌体抗菌剂的出现。
