A type of “good” virus that infects and kills many types of harmful bacteria is being investigated by scientists in the fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as MRSA.

A cream containing the viruses, known as bacteriophages (phages), has been developed to eliminate hospital-acquired infections and could be available within three years. Similar treatments are also being developed for bacterial ear infections and food poisoning, which are triggered by the most stubbornly resistant bugs.

Despite having been used in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to treat infections since the 1920s, the viruses have been neglected in the West for more than 60 years.

Scientists are now re-examining whether phage therapies, previously considered to have been superceded by antibiotics, can curb overuse of the drugs. Clinical trials of the proposed cream for MRSA are planned next year after laboratory tests in which phages wiped out more than 15 strains of the superbug.

MRSA is one of a gathering army of microbes that are becoming immune to antibiotic medicines. Others include resistant strains of tuberculosis, the food bug Escherichia coli, and two more causes of hospital infections, Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas.

Contrary to current guidance to eliminate infections, which emphasises the importance of regular hand-washing and use of alcohol gels, the anti-MRSA cream could be applied to the inside of the nose, where bacteria are known to thrive. The cream is likely to contain a “cocktail” of three or four types of virus so that it is difficult for the bugs to build up resistance to it.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is carried in the body of one in three people without any ill effects, but it can cause potentially lethal infections in hospitals, where sick people come into contact with those harbouring the bacteria.

Latest figures show that there were 3,517 MRSA infections in British hospitals between October 2005 and March last year. Shedding of the bug from the nose is the main mode of transmission, researchers say. Treating the full range of hospital-acquired infections costs the NHS about £1 billion a year.

Nick Housby, chief executive of the Coventry-based biotech company Novolytics, which is carrying out the research, said that the aim was to use the phage cream as a preventative measure that could be given to staff and patients a day or two before they go into hospital. But he added that it could also eliminate infections in affected patients within 24 hours.

“We’re extremely optimistic,” he said. We know we can kill, in the laboratory, clinically relevant strains. It’s a question now of putting it into the right cream, in terms of the formulation, to make sure that it works.”

The cream would be applied with a stick inserted into the nose. The viruses could then target MRSA bacteria, injecting them with their own genetic material. The bugs are reprogrammed to produce more viruses, which then break out of their host, destroying it in the process. Since the viruses reproduce themselves, repeat treatments would not be needed as frequently as with antibiotics.

The viruses are now starting to make a comeback in the West, where more than 12 companies are now developing phage products.

Geoff Hanlon, an expert in the viruses at the University of Brighton, said: “We’re now finding antibiotics are becoming less useful. The climate is probably right to revisit bacteriophage therapy.”

Phage therapy

— Bacteriophages — the name means “bacteria eaters” — are the most abundant life form on Earth, found nearly everywhere, including in drinking water and some foods

— The British bacteriologist Ernest Hankin noted their anti-bacterial properties in 1896 after finding fewer cases of cholera near the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India

— In 1915, Frederick Twort identified a “bacteria virus” in a note in The Lancet medical journal. Two years later, Felix d’Herelle named the viruses “bacteriophages” and used them to treat French patients who had dysentery and typhoid

— The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1945 diverted attention in the West towards antibiotics but the Eliava Institute, founded in 1923 in Tblisi, Georgia, continued d’Herelle’s research

— After the end of the Soviet Union, government agencies in the West looked to Georgia for help in using phages against bioweapons and toxins such as anthrax. Ideas for agricultural and medical uses follow

Source: Times Database

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