Bacteriophages are being investigated for use as possible...?

Question

Bacteriophages are being investigated for use as possible alternative treatments for bacterial infections rather than antibiotics. Please explain how this might work with regard to the nature of bacteriophages and why you believe it may or may not be a useful approach.

Thank you :)

Answer 1

Bacteriophages are specialized viruses that only "eat" and destroy bacteria. As opposed to antibiotics, which gives you either a weakened, live version or a dead bacteria to let your body produce antibodies and store it in the memory B and T cells, bacteriophages actually just target and will kill the invading bacteria itself. Antibiotics can be specific, but there are many broad-spectrum antibiotics that generally wipe out most of the bacteria within its host, getting rid of the bad and the good. Theoretically, if bacteriophages can be limited to ONLY the invading pathogen, then the bacteriophage would be the better approach, targeting only the invader. However, there may be a problem getting past the immune system, as a virus as a bacteriophage would be deemed "nonself" and possibly a threat to the body.