As issues of antimicrobial resistance continue to surface, researchers are renewing their focus on alternatives to antibiotics.
Phage therapy — using bacteriophages that infect and kill bacteria — may be one of those treatments.
Phage therapy was first used in 1919 to treat infections but fell to the wayside when antibiotics came into play, according to The Scientist.
The magazine article highlighted a report from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that identified phage therapy as an approach to addressing antibacterial resistance.
Phage therapy is typically used on farms to promote animal growth or prevent outbreaks, but researchers have identified a number of diseases that might be treated using phage therapy, including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cenocepacia.
Currently, manufacturing and regulatory processes surrounding phage therapy is still unclear, but these viruses may present a solution to the growing antimicrobial resistance problem.
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