Chanishvili Nina
R & D Department, Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology & Virology, Gotua street 3, P.O. Box 0160, Tbilisi, Georgia.
Curr Drug Deliv. 2016;13(3):309-23. doi: 10.2174/156720181303160520193946.
Bacteriophage (from 'bacteria' and Greek φαγεῖν phagein "to devour" or bacterial eaters) are bacterial viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Bacteriophages (shortly "phages") are among the most common and diverse entities in the biosphere. The estimated number of phages on earth is about 1032. Bacteriophages are often isolated from environmental sources, such as water samples, etc. Felix d'Herelle, one of the discoverers of bacteriophages, was the one who suggested them for therapy of human and animal bacterial infections. This idea was very popular in the world until the advent of antibiotics commercial after which production of therapeutic phages ceased in most of the Western countries, but not in the former Soviet Union. The application of antibiotics in the clinical practice, besides the well-known side effects, entails, in addition, the appearance of the forms of bacteria, resistant to newly synthesized preparations. It was concluded that a European and global strategy to address this gap is urgently needed. Now, faced with the alarming growth of a variety of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections, Western researchers and governments are giving phages a serious look. The phages nowadays are seen as a possible therapy against multi-drug-resistant strains of many bacteria. The therapeutic action of bacteriophages significantly differs from antibiotics, which makes them still active against multi-drug-resistant bacteria. Bacteriophages have a number of other advantages in comparison with antibiotics. First of all, they are efficient against multi-drug-resistant bacteria. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of the past and current experiences in the field of phage therapy in the countries where it has been traditionally applied in the clinical practice. Although the style and quality of old Soviet scientific publications dedicated to phage therapy are not challenging the international standards, there is still valuable information which may not be neglected by modern researchers. This information is especially important as it remained unavailable for the Western scientists before because of the language barriers until now. The goal of this article is to encourage further research on this topic, and facilitate rapid decisions on the development of appropriate regulations, which would ultimately permit the use of phages as therapeutic or preventative medicines in daily clinical practice in the Western countries where multiplying drug-resistant bacteria gradually becomes the greatest life threatening problem.
噬菌体（源自“细菌”一词以及希腊语φαγεῖν phagein，意为“吞噬”或细菌的捕食者）是感染并杀死细菌的细菌病毒。噬菌体（简称“噬菌体”）是生物圈中最常见、种类最多样的实体之一。地球上噬菌体的估计数量约为10³² 。噬菌体通常从环境来源中分离出来，如水样等。噬菌体的发现者之一费利克斯·德赫雷尔提出将其用于治疗人类和动物的细菌感染。在抗生素商业化出现之前，这个想法在世界上非常流行，此后大多数西方国家停止了治疗性噬菌体的生产，但前苏联除外。在临床实践中应用抗生素，除了众所周知的副作用外，还会导致出现对新合成制剂有抗性的细菌形式。得出的结论是，迫切需要一项欧洲和全球战略来填补这一空白。如今，面对各种抗生素耐药性细菌感染的惊人增长，西方研究人员和政府正在认真考虑噬菌体。如今，噬菌体被视为对抗多种细菌的多重耐药菌株的一种可能疗法。噬菌体的治疗作用与抗生素有显著不同，这使得它们对多重耐药细菌仍然有效。与抗生素相比，噬菌体还有许多其他优点。首先，它们对多重耐药细菌有效。这篇综述的目的是概述在传统上已将噬菌体疗法应用于临床实践的国家中，该领域过去和当前的经验。尽管过去苏联致力于噬菌体疗法的科学出版物的风格和质量没有达到国际标准，但仍有一些有价值的信息现代研究人员不可忽视。这些信息尤为重要，因为直到现在，由于语言障碍，西方科学家此前一直无法获取这些信息。本文的目的是鼓励对这一主题进行进一步研究，并促进迅速做出关于制定适当法规的决定，这最终将允许在西方国家的日常临床实践中使用噬菌体作为治疗或预防药物，在这些国家，多重耐药细菌的不断增加正逐渐成为最大的生命威胁问题。
