ABOVE: Three phages called Muddy, BPs, and ZoeJ (shown left to right in electron micrographs) were used to treat a patient’s bacterial infection.
R. M. DEDRICK ET AL./NATURE MEDICINE 2019
Genetically modified viruses have successfully treated an antibiotic-resistant infection in a teenage girl, saving her life, researchers report today (May 8) in Nature Medicine. While this approach using engineered phages—viruses that infect bacteria—has only been tested in one person, the technique could be developed to battle other persistent, “superbug” infections.
“This is actually a historic moment,” Steffanie Strathdee, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the study, tells NPR. “This is the first time that a genetically engineered phage has been used to successfully treat a superbug infection in a human being.” Strathdee says. “It’s terribly exciting.”
In the study, a teenager from England was suffering from an infection with a strain ...
