Showing posts sorted by relevance for query BIOPHAGES. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query BIOPHAGES. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

#BIOPHAGES

Trained viruses prove more effective at fighting antibiotic resistance

Practice boosts phage potency in evolutionary battleground with deadly bacteria

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Research News

The threat of antibiotic resistance rises as bacteria continue to evolve to foil even the most powerful modern drug treatments. By 2050, antibiotic resistant-bacteria threaten to claim more than 10 million lives as existing therapies prove ineffective.

Bacteriophage, or "phage," have become a new source of hope against growing antibiotic resistance. Ignored for decades by western science, phages have become the subject of increasing research attention due to their capability to infect and kill bacterial threats.

A new project led by University of California San Diego Biological Sciences graduate student Joshua Borin, a member of Associate Professor Justin Meyer's laboratory, has provided evidence that phages that undergo special evolutionary training increase their capacity to subdue bacteria. Like a boxer in training ahead of a title bout, pre-trained phages demonstrated they could delay the onset of bacterial resistance.

The study, which included contributions from researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel and the University of Texas at Austin, is published June 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Antibiotic resistance is inherently an evolutionary problem, so this paper describes a possible new solution as we run out of antibiotic drug options," said Borin. "Using bacterial viruses that can adapt and evolve to the host bacteria that we want them to infect and kill is an old idea that is being revived. It's the idea of the enemy of our enemy is our friend."

The idea of using phages to combat bacterial infections goes back to the days prior to World War II. But as antibiotic drugs became the leading treatment for bacterial infections, phage research for therapeutic potential was largely forgotten. That mindset has changed in recent years as deadly bacteria continue to evolve to render many modern drugs ineffective.

Borin's project was designed to train specialized phage to fight bacteria before they encounter their ultimate bacterial target. The study, conducted in laboratory flasks, demonstrated classic evolutionary and adaptational mechanisms at play. The bacteria, Meyer said, predictably moved to counter the phage attack. The difference was in preparation. Phages trained for 28 days, the study showed, were able to suppress bacteria 1,000 times more effectively and three- to eight-times longer than untrained phage.

"The trained phage had already experienced ways that the bacteria would try to dodge it," said Meyer. "It had 'learned' in a genetic sense. It had already evolved mutations to help it counteract those moves that the bacteria were taking. We are using phage's own improvement algorithm, evolution by natural selection, to regain its therapeutic potential and solve the problem of bacteria evolving resistance to yet another therapy."

The researchers are now extending their findings to research how pre-trained phages perform on bacteria important in clinical settings, such as E. coli. They are also working to evaluate how well training methods work in animal models.

UC San Diego is a leader in phage research and clinical applications. In 2018 the university's School of Medicine established the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, the first dedicated phage therapy center in North America.

"We have prioritized antibiotics since they were developed and now that they are becoming less and less useful people are looking back to phage to use as therapeutics," said Meyer. "More of us are looking into actually running the experiments necessary to understand the types of procedures and processes that can improve phage therapeutics."

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The study's full author list includes: Joshua Borin, Sarit Avrani, Jeffrey Barrick, Katherine Petrie and Justin Meyer.



CAPTION

Trained and untrained phages are pitted against bacteria in battleground flasks to evaluate which is more effective at killing.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

 BIOPHAGES

Treating bladder infections with viruses


Peer-Reviewed Publication

ETH ZURICH

Electron micrograph of phages 

IMAGE: ELECTRON MICROGRAPH OF PHAGES view more 

CREDIT: MATTHEW DUNNE / SCOPEM / ETH ZURICH



About one in two women are affected by cystitis during her lifetime, and many suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections. Bladder infections are not only painful and potentially dangerous, but they also pose a significant dilemma for physicians. With antibiotic resistance becoming widespread in urinary tract infections and continually increasing, physicians are often forced to blindly prescribe antibiotics without knowing their effectiveness against the pathogen causing the infection. This is because it takes several days to identify a specific pathogen using conventional diagnostics.

Researchers at ETH Zurich, in collaboration with Balgrist University Hospital, have now developed a rapid test that employs the natural viral predators of bacteria, bacteriophages. The researchers also genetically modified the phages to make them more efficient at destroying the pathogenic bacteria.

Fast and reliable diagnosis

Phages are highly specialised viruses. Each species of phage infects only one particular type or strain of bacteria. ETH Zurich scientists from the Food Microbiology research group led by Professor Martin Loessner are now taking advantage of this unique characteristic. The first step was to identify the phages that are effective against the three main types of bacteria implicated in urinary tract infections, namely Escherichia coliKlebsiella and Enterococci. These natural phages were then modified in such a way that any bacteria they recognize and infect are propelled to produce an easy-​to-measure light signal.

Using this method, the researchers were able to reliably detect the pathogenic bacteria directly from a urine sample in less than four hours. In the future, the method could make it possible to prescribe a suitable antibiotic immediately after diagnosis and thus minimize resistance development and improve antibiotic stewardship.

The method also has another advantage: it allows physicians to predict which patients are likely to respond particularly well to a tailored phage therapy, as the strength of the light signal produced in the assay already indicates how efficient the phages are in attacking the bacterium – the more the sample glows, the better the bacterium will respond to the therapy.

Double-​action sniper

Phage therapies have been used for over 100 years but fell into oblivion in Western industrialised countries with the discovery of penicillin. In view of increasing antibiotic resistance, they are currently seeing a renaissance. They also have the decisive advantage of attacking only a single target bacterium, much like a sniper.

However, previous therapeutic approaches have one problem: “Phages aren’t interested in completely killing their host, the pathogenic bacterium,” explains ETH researcher Samuel Kilcher, one of the study’s two final authors. To enhance the phages’ effectiveness, the researchers genetically modified them. The modified phages produce not only new phages inside the infected host bacterium, but also bacteriocins. Once they are released, these bacteria-​killing proteins are particularly effective against bacterial strains that have altered parts of their surface in such a way that the phages no longer recognise them. This double-​barrelled attack makes the treatment more effective.

From the laboratory to the clinic

In individual cases, such as the recent rescue of a lung patient at the University Hospital of Geneva, phage therapies have been successfully used experimentally. “There are also many academic and commercial clinical trials underway worldwide that are systematically investigating the potential of natural and genetically optimized phages,” says Matthew Dunne, one of the study's final authors. However, there is a long way to go before such therapies can be applied more widely in Western countries. In addition to extensive clinical studies, regulatory adjustments would also be useful, taking into account the fact that phages are biological entities that co-​evolve with their bacterial hosts, i.e., they are constantly evolving.

The present study is a proof of concept. Next, the ETH Zurich researchers, together with their partners from Balgrist University Hospital, will test the efficacy of the new phage therapy in a clinical trial with selected patients.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

New Yale Center to Advance Phage Understanding, Treatments, Training, Education

February 14, 2022
by Julie Parry

The Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale held its launch event on Thursday, January 27, 2022, by hosting a panel discussion centered around the context of the documentary, Salt In My Soul.

Salt In My Soul chronicles the life of Mallory Smith, a woman with cystic fibrosis, by using her own words from her diary, audio and video clips that her mother Diane Shader-Smith discovered after her daughter’s passing. Smith’s doctors tried experimental phage therapy to treat a multi-antibiotic-resistant infection, but this occurred too late to prevent her death at age 25 from infectious complications after bilateral lung transplant.

Photo by Robert Lisak
Dr. Jon Koff meets with patient.

Director of the Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale, Paul Turner, PhD, Rachel Carson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, discussed the antibiotic resistance crisis and how phage therapy can combat this crisis.

The antibiotic resistance crisis is a “sobering reminder that not too far off in the future, the expected rates of death from antimicrobial resistance in the human population around the world may exceed the rates of deaths from common diseases, such as cancer,” said Turner.

“What can we do?” Turner asked. “We can harness an old technology, phage therapy, and update it for modern times. At Yale, we have had successful therapeutic use of lytic phages.”

The new Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale will work to create solutions for antimicrobial resistance. Through their mission to advance and support phage research; to translate these advancements into new clinical therapies; and to train and educate students, scientists, healthcare professionals, and the community, the new Center combines the work of faculty, researchers, trainees, and staff to further develop phage for therapeutic use. These efforts bridge across Yale University and Yale School of Medicine, especially the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Internal Medicine.

The Center has informally existed at Yale since 2016 when a case of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa was treated successfully with phage OMKO1, discovered in a water sample from Dodge Pond, a small lake in Conn.

Ella Balasa, an individual with cystic fibrosis and advocate, feels incredibly lucky to have received phage therapy at Yale in 2019. “I believe that without it [phage therapy], at this point, I would have been transplanted because of the severe lung infection that I was facing at the time,” she said.

Balasa had been struggling with antibiotic resistant infections for many years when she came across a story about Yale researchers’ work in phage therapy. She then contacted Research Scientist Benjamin Chan, PhD, scientific director of the Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale. Chan started the process to obtain approval to treat Balasa via the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) investigational new drug expanded access program, or what is often called compassionate use.

“At that point, my lung function was about 20%,” Balasa said. “Phage did clear my infection. I want everyone to know that this therapy can be a viable option for antimicrobial resistance. I am excited that there are groups like you all [Yale] that are bringing clinical trials to people.”

The Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale is making a multi-million-dollar investment in phage biology research and phage applications. They are currently targeting pulmonary infections in cystic fibrosis and other relevant clinical conditions. In addition, the Center will expand to address causes of sepsis, prosthetic-joint infections, post-COVID pneumonia, and other antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the future.

Jon Koff, MD, associate professor (Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine); director, Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program; and medical director of the Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale, serves as the principal investigator on the CYstic fibrosis bacterioPHage study at Yale (CYPHY), an FDA-approved human clinical phase I/II trial, developed at Yale School of Medicine and funded through Yale University, the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“[The trial] is an exemplar of using our strategy of looking more towards treating patients chronically over the long term with phages to see if we can affect their multi-drug resistant infections and see clinical improvements. It is similar to introducing an inhaled antibiotic,” explained Koff.

“The trial has been very rewarding and a great opportunity for me to engage with our patients, our community, and providers around the country. We’ve seen patients come to Yale from all over and this has allowed me to communicate to folks from multiple communities about our phage and our phage strategies,” said Koff.

In addition to Turner, Chan, Koff, and Balasa, other presenters in the one-hour virtual event were Gunnar Esiason, cystic fibrosis advocate, and graduate student at Dartmouth in the MBA/MPH program; Will Battersby, film director and producer of Salt In My Soul; and Diane Shader-Smith, Mallory Smith’s mother.

Battersby spoke about making the documentary, the themes throughout, and how people have embraced the work. “If you tell the story of somebody going through extraordinary things, extraordinary themes and lessons will emerge. I had no intention of making a film that would be picked up by the phage community in the way that it has, but it is very moving because of the possibilities in the film, […] it makes you ask so many things about phage.”

Shader-Smith shared in Battersby’s sentiment. “Mallory was willing to try phage therapy. We had many, many long talks about it. I think the main reason that people love the film, despite the tragedy, is that they leave feeling hopeful. And phage therapy is that hope,” she said.

Chan has devoted his career to furthering phage research and developing phage therapies. Despite the long history of phage usage, until recently, it hasn’t gained steam in the 0077saestern biomedical community. He gathers his strength to continue with his efforts from cystic fibrosis patients like Balasa and Esiason, parents like Shader-Smith, and supporters like Battersby.

“The cystic fibrosis community is the best. We are in it together. We help each other move through stuff. If it wasn’t for them, I would have burned out a long time ago,” he said.

Koff believes that Chan diminishes his commitment to this work. “Ben minimized his unbelievable energy to follow through on this and to have a vision for translating what he is seeing in the laboratory to the clinic. It has been an absolute pleasure working with him and seeing that level of effort,” said Koff.

“What is awesome is that I am able to be part of this process in the clinic, in the research in collaboration with Paul [Turner] and Ben [Chan] and the research group, and we can see this happening in the clinical trial context. It has been a wonderful experience for me to cross all of these aspects and I think they make our Center pretty unique,” said Koff.

The Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale is funded by Yale University and philanthropic contributors who share the vision for phage therapy.

To learn more about the phage research at Yale, visit Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale. For more information on the CYPHY trial, visit CYstic Fibrosis bacterioPHage Study at Yale (CYPHY). To learn more about the documentary, watch the trailer, or the film, go to Salt In My Soul.

Submitted by Julie Parry on February 13, 2022

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

 

Inhaled microplastics inhibit key immune cell in the lungs



Study also shows how macrophage function can be restored after exposure



American Thoracic Society

Adam Soloff, MD 

image: 

Adam Soloff, PhD, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and first author of the study.

view more 

Credit: Adam Soloff, MD






Session:  B15—Macrophages: The Pac-Man of the Immune System

Inhaled Microplastics Inhibit Tissue Maintenance Functions of Pulmonary Macrophages

ATS 2025, San Francisco – Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, and we all routinely inhale these tiny pollutants. Now new research published at the ATS 2025 International Conference has found that inhaled microplastics suppress pulmonary macrophages, a type of white blood cell found in the lungs that are critical to the immune system.

The findings shed new light on the mechanisms through which microplastic exposure leads to long-term disruption of immune function and increases risk of cancer and other diseases. These risks aren’t limited to the lungs but can affect the entire body.

“For me, it’s a bit eye opening that although microplastics aren’t the most dangerous agent we may encounter, they are far from benign,” said Adam Soloff, PhD, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and first author of the study. “Respiratory microplastics disseminate systemically after passing through the lung and negatively affect macrophage function. Overall, these may have detrimental effects on any and all organ systems and contribute to a number of diseases.”

Macrophages are the most abundant immune cell of the lung and play a critical role. These cells work as immune housekeepers, devouring pathogens and maintaining tissue homeostasis. They also clear away dead lung cells, which can cause chronic inflammation when they’re left to accumulate.

For the study, researchers cultured macrophages with polystyrene microplastics at different sizes and concentrations. They also exposed mice to inhaled microplastics and then measured the effects on the animals’ macrophage function.

They found that within 24 hours of exposure to microplastics of any size, the macrophages showed a reduced ability to surround and absorb other bacteria, a critical process called phagocytosis. Microplastic particles were readily detected in the liver, spleen and colon with trace amounts in the brain and kidney for up to a week after being inhaled.

Researchers also found that the drug Acadesine, an AMP kinase activator, was able to partially restore macrophage function after microplastic exposures.

Dr. Soloff said the results were surprising.

“When we first started to discuss these microplastic exposures, I was sure that the macrophages would just eat (phagocytose) and digest them (lysosomally process), and that would be the end of it,” he said. “I was really surprised to see that not only did the macrophages struggle to break down the plastics in vitro, but macrophages in the lung retained these particles over time as well.”

In addition to driving public health measures to reduce the use of plastics overall, the findings could support the use of drugs like Acadesine in at-risk populations.

“Given the poor air quality in so many places around the world, you could imagine that developing a low-cost, low-side-effect therapeutic to restore pulmonary macrophage function may be an important tool to combat increasing rates of lung disease,” Dr. Soloff said.

Next, the team will examine microplastic exposure in lung tissues from patients, with a long-term goal of establishing biomarkers for lung disease and lung cancer risk that could be used to trigger early screening or intervention.

 

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VIEW ABSTRACT

You may also be interested in these abstracts.

 

A turning point in medicine: phage therapy moves from promise to practice



Berlin to host groundbreaking international conference targeting the clinical future of bacteriophages



Mitochondria-Microbiota Task Force

A Turning Point in Medicine: Phage Therapy Moves from Promise to Practice 

image: 

A Turning Point in Medicine: Phage Therapy Moves from Promise to Practice

 

view more 

Credit: @ Phage Therapy 2025 Meeting





Berlin, Germany – As antibiotic resistance accelerates into a global crisis, phage therapy is emerging as one of the most promising—and urgent—solutions in modern medicine. From June 10–11, 2025, the international scientific and medical community will gather in Berlin for Targeting Phage Therapy 2025, the leading global event focused on translating phage research into clinical reality.

With the theme “From Bench to Bedside: Accelerating Clinical Applications of Phage Therapy”, this year’s program brings together global leaders across infectious diseases, oncology, microbiome science, regulatory affairs, and biotechnology.

Strategic Aim: Clinical Implementation of Phage Therapy

This year’s edition is strategically designed to fast-track the integration of phage-based therapeutics into routine clinical practice. Key sessions will explore:

  • Ongoing clinical trials in cystic fibrosis, melanoma, and burn infections
  • Engineered phages for cancer and personalized microbiome modulation
  • Innovative delivery systems, from inhaled phages to hydrogels and tablets
  • Legal and regulatory frameworks enabling real-world phage deployment
  • GMP manufacturing pipelines and market access strategies

“The field has matured. The science is here. Now, our focus is clear: scale up production, secure regulatory approval, and deliver precision phage therapies to the patients who need them,” says Prof. Marvin Edeas, Chairman of the Scientific Committee.

Highlights from the 2025 Program – Major Speakers Include:

"Keynote Speech – Phage Therapy 2030: Getting from here to there"

  • Robert T. Schooley – University of California, San Diego (USA)

"Bacteriophage Therapy: A Renaissance – From Military Medicine to Civilian Healthcare"

  • Christian Willy – Academic Hospital Bundeswehr Berlin (Germany)

"Complex Phage Communities Control Gut (im)balances and May Hold the Key to Restore Gut Biosis"

  • Dennis Sandris Nielsen – University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

"Inhaled Bacteriophage Therapy for Multidrug Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Advances & Perspectives"

  • Gail L. Stanley – Yale University (USA)

"KlebPhaCol: Novel Gut Phage Order Associated with the Human Gut"

  • Franklin Nobrega – University of Southampton (United Kingdom)

"Optimizing the Phage-Bacteria Ratio in Phage Therapy: Metagenomic Insights into Microbial Balance and Dysbiosis"

  • Domenico Frezza – University of Roma Tor Vergata (Italy)

"Phage Defense Systems: Are they an Obstacle for Phage Therapy?"

  • Stan J.J. Brouns – Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)

"Biocontrol of Phage Resistance in Pseudomonas Infections – Fitness Trade-Offs Between Phages and Antibiotic Sensitivity"

  • Jumpei Fujiki – Rakuno Gakuen University (Japan)

"Yersinia Phage Stories: Impact on Phage Therapy"

  • Mikael Skurnik – University of Helsinki (Finland)

"Targeting Tumors with Engineered Phages: A New Frontier in Precision Oncology"

  • Alberto Danielli – University of Bologna (Italy)

"Engineering Phages for Cancer Therapy: Insights into Immune Interactions and Targeting in Ex-Vivo and In-Vivo Models"

  • Alena Kaltenbrunner – University of Bologna (Italy)

"Endolysin B as a New Approach & Archetype in M. Tuberculosis Treatment"

  • Loris Rizzello – University of Milan (Italy)

"Ex vivo pig lung as a new Cystic Fibrosis model for the study of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm infection and phage therapy application"

  • Marco Cafora – University of Milan (Italy)

"Translating Phage Therapy into the Clinic: Recent Accomplishments and Next Challenges"

  • Jeremy Barr – Monash University (Australia)

"Bacteriophage Therapy for Critical Infections Related to Cardiothoracic Surgery"

  • Christian Kühn – Hannover Medical School (Germany)

"Phage Therapy in Veterinary Medicine: Presentation of First Clinical Trial in Japan"

  • Hidetomo Iwano – Rakuno Gakuen University (Japan)

"Bacteriophages Applications in Broiler Farms: Strategies & Perspectives"

  • Sandra Sevilla-Navarro – Centro de Calidad Avícola y Alimentación Animal de la Comunidad Valenciana (Spain)

"Phage Therapy in Europe: Legal, Regulatory and Ethic Issues"

  • Barbara Brenner – Kanzlei BRENNER (Germany)

 

Among the companies who will attend the congress:

Jafral (Supporter)
Amazon
Apothekendienstleistungen 
Aptar Radolfzell GmbH
Centro de Calidad Avícola y Alimentación Animal de la Comunidad Valenciana

ArGe Teknoloji Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Åžirketi
FagoFarma
TiPHAGE
Grachtenhaus-Apotheke e.K.
German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Inteliphage

Kanzlei BRENNER
Komplementäre Tiermedizin GmbH
LABOKLIN GmbH & Co. KG
Laboklin Phage Center
Laboratorios Syva
MB Pharma
MicrobiotiX
Medios AG
Nordmark Pharma
Otsuka Pharmaceutical CO.
Phileo by Lesaffre
Phagos
Precise Health SA
PrecisionPhage
Poulpharm
Qiagen
Rime Bioinformatics
Salem Microbes

A Defining Moment for Antibacterial Innovation

As resistance to antibiotics continues to grow, phage therapy is moving from scientific promise to clinical necessity. With over 75 communications, live discussions, and poster sessions attendees from 27 countires, the event aims to chart the course for clinical access, regulatory harmonization, and global collaborations.

For media inquiries, interviews, or partnership opportunities, visit: www.phagetherapy-site.com

MEDIA KIT

Phage Therapy: The Hottest Frontier in Tomorrow’s Medicine

Targeting Phage Therapy 2025
June 10–11, 2025 – Berlin, Germany
Website: www.phagetherapy-site.com

MEDIA CONTACT

Email: contact@phagetherapy-site.com

EVENT OVERVIEW

  • Title: Targeting Phage Therapy 2025
  • Dates: June 10–11, 2025
  • Location: Berlin, Germany
  • Format: In-person Conference
  • Organized by: International Society of Microbiota (ISM)

Strategic Theme:

“From Bench to Bedside: Accelerating Clinical Applications of Phage Therapy”

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

  • 75+ talks and presentations from global experts coming from 27 Countries
  • Real-world clinical trials in cystic fibrosis, burn wounds, and TB
  • Live GMP manufacturing and regulatory strategy sessions
  • Cross-sector focus: Human health, oncology, veterinary, agriculture
  • Legal, ethical and market access discussions with EU stakeholders

PRESS MATERIALS

  • High-resolution conference logo
    Poster & social media banners (JPEG/PNG)
  • Full program (PDF)
  • Press release
  • Interview coordination available upon request

SOCIAL MEDIA & TAGS

Hashtags:

#PhageTherapy2025 | #Microbiome | #FutureOfMedicine | #PrecisionInfectiousCare

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/phage-therapy-task-force/

QUOTES FOR MEDIA USE

“Phage therapy is no longer experimental—it’s strategic. This conference marks the inflection point where science becomes practice.”

— Prof. Marvin Edeas, Chair, Scientific Committee

SEE 
 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PHAGES
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PHAGE
 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BIOPHAGES