New Ways to Control Bacterial Diseases

In Scotland University of Strathclyde scientists have developed a way of chemically bonding Bacteriophage to nylon. Most of the time Bacteriophage is stored in a liquid but when it is attached to nylon it can be stored dry. The nylon can be in the form of strips, beads and thread. The thread are used by surgeons to suture the cuts after an operation. The nylon strips can be laid over a open wound. Both  methods  are very good at stopping infections.

They are now going through the approval process and expect to have the new product available in Great Britain in 2015. I don’t know if they will be able to get the new product approved for use in the United States unless the FDA changed their policy on mutations.  Currently the FDA has stated that any product that mutates in the body will not be approved as medicine. It is true that the Bacteriophage bonded to the Nylon won’t mutate but  offspring still can mutate.

In India GangaGen Biotechnologies has attached  a protein that will kill the MRSA bacteria to a Bacteriophage. When the Bacteriophage attacks the MRSA virus the the protein emits an infrared light which kills the bacteria. Sense the bacteria is killed before the Bacteriophage can produce offspring.

Are these two inventions better than Phage Therapy. Bacteriophage can be sprayed  on  the area that the surgeon cut open making the Bacteriophage available to the entire wound, not just in the area where the wound is sutured.  In the second instance the Bacteriophage can insert their DNA into a bacteria and creates 50 or more offspring right in the area where the infection is located.

GangaGen Biotechnologies is also working on a Bacteriophage in which they have changed the DNA.  This Bacteriophage Can kills the bacteria but is unable to split the bacteria open. This could be a real advance because there are some types of bacteria  that have poison inside. When these bacteria are broken open they can cause a fever or in severe cases toxic shock. For these type of bacteria this seems like it could be a real breakthrough.