The trick is to use only partial phage particles. This works
because of the phenomenon of "LYSIS-FROM-WITHOUT" . It is possible to
clone the host recognition peptide for some phage particles and use this
in large concentrations to destabilize the bacterial membrane integrity.
That way, only a specific protein will be introduced into the patient.....
Dele Ogunseitan
Laboratory for Molecular Ecology
Department of Environmental Analysis & Design
University of California
Irvine 92717-5150
On Fri, 29 Mar 1996, Richard Van Frank wrote:
> In article <jcherwon.115.000FF59F at dres.dnd.ca>,
>jcherwon at dres.dnd.ca (John Cherwonogrodzky) wrote:
> >Dear Colleagues:
> > There is a discussion on the net about the use of bacteriophages to
> >replace antibiotics in the treatment of infectious agents. This worries me
> >because there is enough evidence that bacteriophages play a role in increased
> >virulence (e.g. diphtheria, flesh-eating streptococci). In our own study we
> >tried to use WB1 bacteriophage to clear Brucella abortus out of balb/c mice.
>> >The result was a 200-fold increase in spleen counts over controls (see Arch.
> >Med. Vet. 27:23-28). Are you sure you want to be opening Pandora's
> Box?...John
> Bacteriophage would be foreign antigen. Injection of amounts sufficient to do
> any good would produce antibodies and who knows what an additional
> injection(s) would result in. They might infect bacteria circulating in the
> blood but I doubt they would do any good in tissues.
> RMVF
>>
