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Phages as Therapy or “Dietary Supplements” Against Multiresistant Bacteria?

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Biocommunication of Phages

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Abstract

Bacteria and phages form an ecosystem and play a role in obesity, in Intestinal bowel disease, neurological disorders, in the brain-gut axis and more recently in anticancer therapies. We have shown that fecal transfer can cure a patient from a life -threatening infection with Clostridium difficile. The microbiome and virome of the feces of a patient before and after fecal transfer has been analyzed, where phages play a role.

Phages form a quasispecies and are highly specialized to specific bacterial hosts. Further studies are required to develop broad-range phages similar to broad-range antibiotics.

Phages do not fit into the regulatory presently required definition as a medicinal product. They should be defined differently to enable scientists and medical doctors to evaluate them for general phage therapy. They should be defined as food supplements or dietary products, or probiotics similar to probiotic bacteria. Then they could be evaluated for more general applications for people with infections. The rules need to be changed.

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Acknowledgement

I want to thank Dr. Felix Broecker for discussions and critical reading of the mansucript. I am grateful to “Betty” Kutter for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

    Karin Moelling

  2. Institute for Medical Microbiology, University Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Karin Moelling

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  1. Karin Moelling
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Correspondence to Karin Moelling .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Telos-Philosophische Praxis, Buermoos, Salzburg, Austria

    Guenther Witzany

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Moelling, K. (2020). Phages as Therapy or “Dietary Supplements” Against Multiresistant Bacteria?. In: Witzany, G. (eds) Biocommunication of Phages. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45885-0_14

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