Phage Therapy
June 25, 2019 | Terry Sharrer
A teenage girl developed an antibiotic-resistant infection following a lung transplant to treat cystic fibrosis. Her prospects were dim at best, but researchers at the University of Pittsburgh came up with a means of infecting the infectious pathogens. “This treatment used a cocktail of three phages, which are viruses that solely attack and kill bacteria. Two of the three phages, selected from a library of more than 10,000 kept at the University of Pittsburgh, had been genetically engineered to be better at attacking the bacteria. The therapy was injected into her bloodstream twice daily and applied to the lesions on her skin, according to Nature Medicine.” It was a remarkable recovery to say the least. MORE
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