2023-07-30 17:18:00
BREAKTHROUGH IN MEDICAL PRACTICE: SWISS RESEARCHERS SAVE TERMINALLY ILL PATIENT WITH VIRUSES
July 30, 2023
In a stunning development, Swiss researchers have successfully saved a supposedly terminally ill patient with the help of viruses. This breakthrough in medical practice could potentially accelerate the use of these viruses, known as phages, in everyday healthcare.
For years, microbiologists and physicians have been warning about the ineffectiveness of antibiotics due to bacterial resistance. Recently, a strain of pulmonary bacteria in the canton of Geneva became completely resistant to multiple antibiotic methods. The bacterium developed molecular pumps that rendered antibiotics ineffective and formed new enzymes that destroyed reserve antibiotics.
The victim of this aggressive bacterium was a 41-year-old man with chronic lung disease. Despite being hospitalized for over seven months in 2019 without improvement, his doctors decided to try an experimental therapy with phages. Phages are viruses that specifically infect bacteria without affecting human cells. Although not approved as drugs in most western countries, phages were seen as the last option for the Geneva patient.
After several interventions with phages, the man’s symptoms began to improve. He was eventually released from the hospital in August 2022 and even returned to his normal work. This extraordinary case was documented in a recent study published in “Nature Communications”.
However, the use of viruses as therapy remains controversial due to the legal situation. Phage therapy is currently only allowed in cases where all other treatments have failed. Despite several cases of sensational healing, phage therapy is not legally permitted in any western country.
Nevertheless, Swiss researchers at ETH Zurich have made significant progress in the use of phages in diagnostics. They have developed a method that utilizes genetically modified phages to diagnose urinary tract infections more quickly. By injecting the modified phages into the patient’s urine, the researchers can identify the specific bacterium causing the infection in less than five hours. This process is significantly faster than traditional laboratory cultivation, which typically takes between 18 and 30 hours.
Professor Martin Loessner from ETH Zurich, an expert on phages, explained that the use of phages in diagnostics does not require any special approval. Hospitals are free to choose their diagnostic tools. Loessner also emphasized that diagnostics with phages are particularly useful when phages are used for subsequent treatment. The success of each phage can be determined based on the light signals emitted by the infected bacterium.
In addition to diagnostics, the Zurich researchers have also made strides in optimizing phages to be more deadly for bacteria using the CRISPR gene-editing technique. This development is crucial as phages typically do not eliminate the entire bacterial population due to their dependence on bacteria as hosts for replication.
Clinical tests using the improved phages are planned to begin in the coming years, with the Balgrist Hospital in Zurich being involved. However, obtaining approval for phage therapy as medicines is challenging due to outdated laws that favor chemical applications over biological ones. Professor Loessner and Matthew Dunne, one of the researchers, believe that a change in admission requirements is necessary to allow for the widespread use of phage therapy.
Both experts are optimistic that the current crisis of antibiotic resistance, similar to the response to the Covid pandemic, will prompt authorities to recognize the potential of phage technology. As more researchers predict the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance, the urgency for effective alternatives like phage therapy becomes increasingly apparent.]
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