klasteos at student.dtu.dk ("Steen OEstergaard ", c917243) writes:
>Dear reader,
>Behind the retorical question in my 'Subject' is the idea of using virulent
>bacteriophages for killing antibiotic resistant bacteria. A well chosen virus
>should be able to pass through a mammal digestion system and infect the
>resistant bacterium when it gets in contact with it.
>I would like comments to this idea, if you have any.
I do not have a citation for you, just something a colleague told
me during a chat. His specialty is bacterial adhesion, and we were
discussing the problems of cystic fibrosis patients in that their
lungs become mired with exopolysaccharides of bacterial origin.
He mentioned that, before effective surfactant and antibiotic
treatments had been developed, patients were given viral suspensions
in aerosol by inhalation. The bacteriophage would control the
density of the bacterial populations for a short time.
Sorry, but that's all I know about that one. As far as I can see,
there is no reason why this method of therapy would not work.
Nicholas Landau
Dept. of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Rutgers University
