Bacteriophage Therapy: An Alternative Solution for Antibiotics
Main Article Content
Keywords
Virus, Superbacteria, Bacteriophages, Phage Therapy
Abstract
Bacteriophage therapy is an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of multidrug resistant bacterial infections. Bacterial endolysins, enzymes that degrade the bacterial peptidoglycan (PG), have gained an increasing interest as alternative agents due to their ability to kill antibiotic resistant pathogens efficiently when applied externally as purified proteins. The use of phages has been proposed since its inception as a therapy to treat acute and chronic infections with initial successes described in the disciplines of dermatology, ophthalmology, urology, and stomatology. In this review, the information below will serve to explain the concept of bacteriophage therapy, from the pros and cons of bacterial therapy, to the amount of availability that this therapy can reach. In general, it can be said that bacteriophage therapy, being a natural bacteria predator, has become a greatly used alternative or even a supplement to reduce the need for antibiotics because bacteria can develop resistance to conventional antibiotics. However, because of the effectiveness of this treatment, there needs to be more access to this treatment and more rigorous clinical trials in order to get this therapy available for widespread use across Texas and The Rio Grande Valley
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