Patients infected with super bacteria are not incurable, and phage are expected to be their new savior. According to the MIT Technology Review website on the 29th, with the development of DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence, some US startups are turning this "bacterial killer" into a substitute for antibiotics.
As more and more bacteria become resistant to existing drugs, the need for alternatives is urgent. About 2 million people in the United States are infected with resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 people die from infection.
Phages are less likely to develop resistance because each phage only infects certain types of bacteria. The idea of ​​using bacteriophage to fight infection has been around for a long time, but the effect of injecting phage into patients is difficult to predict. Phage therapy can only be used in patients with the most serious bacterial infections and is the last option to be considered.
Today, DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence make it easier to find the right phage, turning this strategy into a more practical treatment.
Paul Grint, CEO of American startup AmpliPhi Life Technologies, said: "We can quickly sequence phage and get the exact DNA sequence." They combine a combination of phage to treat bacterial infections such as Staphylococcus aureus. “In an ideal situation, it can be taken directly from the refrigerator to the patient.â€
Another startup, Adpitive Phage, hopes to use artificial intelligence to customize phage treatments for different patients. At present, laboratory tests take at least 8 hours to obtain the best effect of phage on specific strains. But for critically ill patients, the time may be too long, so the company is trying to automate this process. They developed a machine learning algorithm that uses phage and bacterial genomic data to learn how to select specific phage, ultimately enabling a small vial of the most efficient phage combination to be processed in minutes to handle bacterial infections.
Currently, the two companies have successfully treated about 14 life-threatening patients and can treat other patients if the US Food and Drug Administration approves an emergency use permit. If the new method works, phage therapy may eventually become the mainstream of choice for the treatment of bacterial infections.
Now, the two startups plan to conduct clinical trials to test whether their treatment is better than current antibiotics.
Editor-in-chief
Phage have long been tried for medical treatment , but for the first time released its potential, perhaps because of unrelated advances in the computer field. Artificial intelligence can not only direct the robot to perform surgery, but also find the most suitable antibacterial agent for the patient. This news is overwhelming. While new technologies are convenient for life, they often lead to suspicion, but if the machine can surrender the disease, it will be more trustworthy in the eyes of the world. (Technology Daily)
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Shandong Shengli Bioengineering Co., Ltd , https://www.shenglipharm.com