Summers William C
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; email:
Annu Rev Virol. 2024 Sep;11(1):381-393. doi: 10.1146/annurev-virology-100422-040919. Epub 2024 Aug 30.
The bacteriolytic character of bacteriophages was employed as antibacterial therapy almost from the time of their discovery in 1917. In the United States, phage therapy was sporadic during the 1920s and 1930s but had dwindled into obscurity by the post-WWII period. This demise of phage therapy has traditionally been attributed to the superiority of antibiotics, discovered and first used during the war years, but this explanation is complicated by the fact that phage therapy outside the United States has had a longer and more successful life, especially in the countries of Eastern Europe. This review considers another, probably synergetic factor that was specific to the medical uses of phage in the United States: the geopolitical climate fostered by the Cold War reaction against Soviet science and its associated specter, socialized medicine. This analysis suggests that even such a purely scientific matter involving bacterial viruses cannot escape social forces and political ideologies.
自1917年噬菌体被发现以来，其溶菌特性几乎就被用作抗菌疗法。在美国，20世纪20年代和30年代噬菌体疗法时断时续，但到二战后时期已逐渐销声匿迹。传统上，噬菌体疗法的衰落归因于战时发现并首次使用的抗生素的优越性，但这一解释因以下事实而变得复杂：在美国以外，噬菌体疗法的存续时间更长且更为成功，尤其是在东欧国家。本综述探讨了另一个可能具有协同作用的因素，该因素在美国噬菌体的医学应用中具有特殊性：冷战对苏联科学及其相关幽灵——公费医疗的抵制所营造的地缘政治氛围。这一分析表明，即使是这样一个涉及细菌病毒的纯粹科学问题也无法逃脱社会力量和政治意识形态的影响。
