Category: Latest News

Centenarians’ Diverse Gut Virome: Potential to Modulate Metabolism and Promote Healthy Lifespan

Centenarians’ Diverse Gut Virome: Potential to Modulate Metabolism and Promote Healthy Lifespan

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
After last week’s meeting Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 where Prof. Edeas talked about the role of phages in microbiota modulation, this new paper (Nature Microbiology) highlights the richness of the virome and bacteriophages in Centenarians. Johansen et al., from Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, presented a characterization of the centenarian gut virome using previously…
Posted on June 7, 2023
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Microbiome-friendly phages join the campaign for better antimicrobials

Microbiome-friendly phages join the campaign for better antimicrobials

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
Phages offer a possible solution to bacterial infections that become resistant to antimicrobial agents. Credit: Stocktrek Images, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo Biotech companies are racing to test bacteriophages — some as found in nature, others armed with CRISPR–Cas — to destroy drug-resistant bacteria selectively while keeping the microbiome intact. Bacteriophages are attracting investor support to do the…
Posted on April 26, 2023
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Detection of Salmonella Typhi bacteriophages in surface waters as a scalable approach to environmental surveillance

Detection of Salmonella Typhi bacteriophages in surface waters as a scalable approach to environmental surveillance

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
Environmental surveillance, using detection of Salmonella Typhi DNA, has emerged as a potentially useful tool to identify typhoid-endemic settings; however, it is relatively costly and requires molecular diagnostic capacity. Shrestha et al. sought to determine whether S. Typhi bacteriophages are abundant in water sources in a typhoid-endemic setting, using low-cost assays. They collected drinking and surface…
Posted on April 5, 2023
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Environmental Bacteriophages for Typhoid Surveillance and Evaluating Vaccine Impact

Environmental Bacteriophages for Typhoid Surveillance and Evaluating Vaccine Impact

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
Typhoid-conjugate vaccines (TCVs) provide an opportunity to reduce the burden of typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella Typhi, in endemic areas. As policymakers design vaccination strategies, accurate and high-resolution data on disease burden is crucial. However, traditional blood culture-based surveillance is resource-extensive, prohibiting its large-scale and sustainable implementation.  Salmonella Typhi is a water-borne pathogen, and here, Hooda et al.…
Posted on April 5, 2023
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AP-PA02 Phage cocktail safely lowers P. aeruginosa load in Cystic Fibrosis trial

AP-PA02 Phage cocktail safely lowers P. aeruginosa load in Cystic Fibrosis trial

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
  AP-PA02, an experimental phage therapy for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory infections, was well tolerated and reduced the bacterial load in the lungs, according to top-line results from a Phase 1b/2a trial. High doses of AP-PA02 were associated with durable reductions in bacterial load in the SWARM-Pa study. Pharmacokinetics data, which refers to the movement of…
Posted on March 9, 2023
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Compassionate Use of Phages Against Drug-Resistant Mycobacterial Disease

Compassionate Use of Phages Against Drug-Resistant Mycobacterial Disease

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
“Phage” by Professor Graham Beards is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Nontuberculous Mycobacterium infections, particularly Mycobacterium abscessus, are increasingly common among patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic bronchiectatic lung diseases. Treatment is challenging due to intrinsic antibiotic resistance. Bacteriophage therapy represents a potentially novel approach. Relatively few active lytic phages are available and there is great variation in phage susceptibilities among M.…
Posted on February 27, 2023
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Tail-Engineered Phage P2 for Antimicrobials Delivery

Tail-Engineered Phage P2 for Antimicrobials Delivery

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
    Bacteriophages can be reprogrammed to deliver antimicrobials for therapeutic and biocontrol purposes and are a promising alternative treatment to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Fa-arun et al. developed a bacteriophage P4 cosmid system for the delivery of a Cas9 antimicrobial into clinically relevant human gut pathogens Shigella flexneri and Escherichia coli O157:H7.  Their P4 cosmid design…
Posted on February 27, 2023
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Potential for Bacteriophages as Anticancer Agents

Potential for Bacteriophages as Anticancer Agents

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
Press release written by Dr. Swapnil Ganesh Sanmukh. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with prostate cancer (PCa) being the leading cause of death among men globally. As components of the microbiome, including bacteriophages, are considered relevant concerning the diagnostics and therapeutics of malignant diseases, new interest has emerged to identify their…
Posted on February 10, 2023
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Managing phage therapy to help save lives

Managing phage therapy to help save lives

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
Phages are viruses that can infect and kill bacteria without affecting human or animal cells. Phage therapy was used extensively in the early 20th century prior to the use of antibiotics. (Stock illustration) Scientists with the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences were among those providing the biochemical tools needed to help save a man’s…
Posted on January 27, 2023
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Phage trial to treat CF patients with multi-drug resistant bacterial infections

Phage trial to treat CF patients with multi-drug resistant bacterial infections

Posted on by Targeting Phage Therapy
A false-color micrograph depicts phages attacking a bacterium. Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging, UC San Diego Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disorder that causes severe damage to the lungs and other organs in the body. Nearly 40,000 children and adults in the United States live with CF, an often difficult existence…
Posted on January 27, 2023
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