The idea of using bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages to kill specific microbes implicated in disease has been around for more than a century. But a major barrier to using phage therapies is that the microbiome is constantly evolving and using molecular strategies such as CRISPR to evade attack. Research published today (August 4) in Cell purports to have taken a step toward overcoming that hurdle by using a cocktail of phages that use multiple lines of attack against Klebsiella pneumonia bacteria, preventing them from evolving resistance to the mixture. The researchers behind the study report that their blend of phages successfully treated symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease in mice, and was well-tolerated in very early testing on healthy human volunteers.
“For the first time, we [were] able to develop a precision therapy that would target a group of commensals within this huge ...
