Comparative advantages of phages and antibiotics
(1)Phage has strong specificity.
Generally, it is only infected with specific species of pathogens, and will not damage the normal flora of the body. Because of its broad spectrum, antibiotics are often used in the treatment of infectious diseases, at the same time, they will also destroy the normal host bacteria in the digestive tract, respiratory tract, urogenital tract and other parts, resulting in the imbalance of microbial community, causing opportunistic infections and even more serious systemic infections, and may also lead to new drug resistance.
Phages are a group of viruses that infect bacteria. They can propagate rapidly in large numbers and have no pathogenicity to humans and animals, so they can be treated by relatively simple bacteriological methods.
(2)The phage has strong proliferative ability.
In theory, once administered, phages can maintain themselves as long as the host bacteria persist. The pharmacokinetic analysis of phage showed that under the appropriate conditions, each phage would produce 200 generations of phages in a cracking cycle (2-4 hours), that is, the phage will proliferate with 200N. This means that when a phage is used for treatment, the efficacy of the phage is amplified over time until all host bacteria are killed. Antibiotics are used in treatment, and the therapeutic effect is consumption type. It often needs to be given several times to maintain a certain concentration in order to achieve the ideal therapeutic effect.
(3)Phage therapy has few side effects.
No serious side effects have been found in the present study. There is no report of phage oral allergy. Even some patients with immune deficiency are safe to take phage preparations. This is different from antibiotics, many antibiotics have side effects, even serious side effects. So before using antibiotics, we usually have to test the patients' allergy, some antibiotics can only be used when there is no way.
(4)Phage therapy is not limited by bacterial resistance.
Phage has a completely different bactericidal mechanism from antibiotics and is not affected by antibiotic resistance. This means that phages can be used for treatment without considering the drug resistance of bacteria carried by patients, which not only saves a lot of drug sensitivity testing, saves costs and improves efficiency, but also avoids many casualties caused by delayed or incorrect drug administration (because many drug sensitivity testing takes a long time, such as tuberculosis, etc.).
(5)Phage has no metabolism after entering the body, and will not cause secondary pollution.
Phages only act on the site of bacterial infection and decrease with the death of the pathogen until they disappear. Antibiotics enter the metabolism of the body, some of which are easy to remain in the body, causing secondary pollution.
(6)Phage research and development cycle is short, low cost, easy to update.
Phages can be obtained quickly by directional screening, and the preparation process and cycle are much simpler than antibiotics. Once the bacteria are tolerant to phages, it is relatively easy to screen new lytic phages, which means that phage products can be easily upgraded and replaced.
(7)Recent research suggests that phages may be one of the normal family members of the human microbial community.
Phage can effectively kill bacteria, quickly kill the corresponding host bacteria in a short time, with strong specificity, killing harmful bacteria at the same time will not damage the balance of flora, does not affect the development of the body. It can effectively kill bacteria, quickly kill the corresponding host bacteria in a short time, with strong specificity, killing harmful bacteria at the same time will not damage the balance of flora, does not affect the development of the body.
