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The continued emergence of drug-resistant bacteria combined with the threat of bioterrorism necessitates a renewed effort to develop rapid detection methods and novel treatment strategies for infectious diseases. Bacteriophages may provide a viable option. The use of bacteriophages to treat infectious disease followed shortly after their discovery independently in 1915 by the English bacteriologist and physician Frederick Twort and in 1917 by the French-Canadian bacteriologist Felix d’Herelle. Earlier studies demonstrated the highly effective role of the innate immune system in the rapid removal of phages from the circulatory system, thereby decreasing the efficacy of intravenously injected phages. The results of independent experiments passing phage lambda through 10 successive cycles in mice were two mutant phages that were able to evade entrapment by the reticuloendothelium system. Supernatants were tested for phages with lytic activity, and one phage, designated oMR11, was selected based on its broad host range. Although toxin genes are an important consideration, they are by no means the only virulence factor encoded by phages. The potential for treating infectious diseases with phages has been pursued since their discovery, but for the reasons outlined in this chapter, phage therapy is not currently accepted in Western medicine. Phages can also be used in the clinical setting as tools for detecting specific bacteria from patient samples and for the rapid identification of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. |
