preprints.org > biology and life sciences > immunology and microbiology > doi: 10.20944/preprints201807.0091.v1

Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 4 July 2018 / Approved: 5 July 2018 / Online: 5 July 2018 (10:09:09 CEST)

Bacteriophages, viruses that are widespread throughout the world, are highly specific for bacteria, usually of a single species and often of a particular strain. After being discovered and isolated 100 years ago, their use, called phage therapy, was instituted in medicine two years later and quickly used around the world to treat various bacterial infections. In the West, phage therapy was overshadowed in the second half of the 20th century by antibiotic therapy, which was then thought to be the definitive solution. But because of the increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the idea of using bacteriophages in medicine has been reawakened. The innumerable observations reported over the years in the literature constitute an invaluable experience. We and some of our colleagues have, in the last decade treated some patients compassionately. With the available documentation and our own experience we discuss the potential indications and limitations of phage therapy. The observation of the increasing number of therapeutic failures in the announced perspective of a post-antibiotic era, we believe, that the introduction of bacteriophages into the therapeutic arsenal seems conceivable today to two preconditions: that their production as biologic drug meets current regulatory standards and that the benefit-risk assessment was conducted in a modern setting. Phage therapy could be applied as a substitution or supplement to antibiotic therapy under multiple circumstances in different modes, precise indications and limits.

bacterial infection; antibiotic resistance; bacteriophage; antibiotic therapy; phage therapy; review

Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology

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