37-3 |
Phage therapy: Non-clinical applications |
A. SULAKVELIDZE, Research & Development, Intralytix, Inc, 701 E. Pratt St., Rm. 4037, Baltimore, MD 21202 Bacteriophages or phages are bacterial viruses that specifically lyse their targeted bacterial hosts. First described in the late 1910s, bacteriophages were used to treat human infectious diseases occurring in many countries around the world almost immediately after their discovery. The advent of antibiotics caused phage therapy to fall out-of-favor in the United States and Western Europe; however, phages continued to be utilized therapeutically in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Much semi-anecdotal evidence is available pertaining to the safety and efficacy of phages in treating human infectious diseases of bacterial etiology. However, much less information is available about the potential usefulness of bacteriophages in nonclinical areas, such as veterinary medicine, environmental decontamination, prevention or eradication of bacterial biofilms, etc. – and in what could be one of their most important (and well-suited for the technology) applications: improving the safety of foods. Intralytix, Inc. is pioneering the development of phage technology for a variety of nonclinical applications (the company also has several clinical products in the pipeline), with a major focus being the development of products for improving the safety of various foods. Studies performed by Intralytix and its collaborators have demonstrated that optimal concentrations of naturally-occurring, lytic phages delivered via optimized delivery methods significantly reduce (i.e., several 100- to 1,000-fold) contamination of poultry and eggs (as well as selected fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, and various ready-to-eat foods) with L. monocytogenes and selected, highly pathogenic serogroups of Salmonella. Therefore, phages may provide an environmentally-friendly and safe modality for dealing with major foodborne bacterial pathogens, particularly in poultry and other livestock industries where there have been increasing concerns about the use of antibiotics.
Session 37, Phage therapy as it applies to food public health bacteriology
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