Mutalik Vivek K, Arkin Adam P
Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
iScience. 2022 Mar 19;25(4):104121. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104121. eCollection 2022 Apr 15.
At its current rate, the rise of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections is predicted to paralyze our industries and healthcare facilities while becoming the leading global cause of loss of human life. With limited new antibiotics on the horizon, we need to invest in alternative solutions. Bacteriophages (phages)-viruses targeting bacteria-offer a powerful alternative approach to tackle bacterial infections. Despite recent advances in using phages to treat recalcitrant AMR infections, the field lacks systematic development of phage therapies scalable to different applications. We propose a Phage Foundry framework to establish metrics for phage characterization and to fill the knowledge and technological gaps in phage therapeutics. Coordinated investment in AMR surveillance, sampling, characterization, and data sharing procedures will enable rational exploitation of phages for treatments. A fully realized Phage Foundry will enhance the sharing of knowledge, technology, and viral reagents in an equitable manner and will accelerate the biobased economy.
按照目前的趋势，预计抗微生物药物耐药性（AMR）感染的增加将使我们的工业和医疗设施陷入瘫痪，同时成为全球人类生命损失的主要原因。由于新抗生素的研发前景有限，我们需要投资于替代解决方案。噬菌体——一种靶向细菌的病毒——为治疗细菌感染提供了一种强有力的替代方法。尽管最近在使用噬菌体治疗顽固性AMR感染方面取得了进展，但该领域缺乏可扩展到不同应用的噬菌体疗法的系统开发。我们提出了一个噬菌体铸造厂框架，以建立噬菌体表征的指标，并填补噬菌体治疗学中的知识和技术空白。对AMR监测、采样、表征和数据共享程序进行协调投资，将有助于合理利用噬菌体进行治疗。一个全面实现的噬菌体铸造厂将以公平的方式加强知识、技术和病毒试剂的共享，并将加速生物基经济的发展。
