Is it safe for humans to treat antibiotic-resistant infections with bacteriophages - viruses that destroy bacterial cells? This is what biologists from the University of Gdańsk decided to test in collaboration with a scientist from the University of Agriculture in Krakow. Their findings suggest that phage therapy can be considered a safe method. The publication appeared in ‘Nature Communications’, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals.

One of the problems of modern medicine is antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, against which, as the name suggests, antibiotics are ineffective. Alternative methods of treating these diseases are therefore being sought. One of these is the use of bacteriophages (phages for short), which are viruses that infect bacterial cells and destroy them.

‘The problem so far, however, has been the uncertainty about the safety of using bacteriophages. They are, after all, viruses, and our body, when it comes into contact with viruses, triggers an immune response which, if intense, would be unfavourable in the case of phage therapy,’ says prof. Grzegorz Węgrzyn.

In a publication entitled ‘Bacteriophage DNA induces an interrupted immune response during phage therapy in a chicken model’, the authors showed that reacting to the appearance of bacteriophage DNA, animal cells start processes that could lead to the activation of a strong immune response, but they are inhibited at a specific stage. The blocked step is the production of double-stranded RNA molecules, which are necessary to trigger the final phase of a full innate immune response. The response does not occur because the DNA of the bacteriophage is not recognised by an enzyme found in animal and human cells.

‘These results not only mean the discovery of a mechanism for an interrupted immune response to bacteriophages but also indicate that phage therapy can be considered a safe method, thus offering hope for effective control of pathogenic antibiotic-resistant bacteria,’ explains prof. Grzegorz Węgrzyn.

The authors of the publication are eight scientists from the University of Gdańsk and a scientist from the Hugo Kołłątaj Agricultural University in Kraków:

• dr Magdalena Podlacha
• dr Lidia Gaffke
• mgr Łukasz Grabowski
• dr Jagoda Mantej
• mgr Michał Grabski
• dr hab. Małgorzata Pierzchalska, prof. URK
• dr hab. Karolina Pierzynowska
• prof. dr hab. Grzegorz Węgrzyn
• prof. dr hab. Alicja Węgrzyn