Phage therapy, which is an alternative solution, will be applied in cases of throat infection where antibiotics can no longer be used in Turkey. Phage therapy will be an alternative to antibiotics in cases such as drug allergy and resistance development.
Phage therapy was developed against bacteria causing throat infection with the project titled "Characterization of Streptococcus pyogenes bacteriophages and determination of bacteriolytic activities of endolysin protein" initiated at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University.
Professor of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dr. With the project carried out by Şengül Alpay Karaoğlu, it will be possible to apply phage therapy in cases where antibiotics cannot be used.
IT WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE WORLD LITERATURE
Thanks to the study supported by the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB), throat infection can be treated permanently by developing products such as sprays or disinfectants instead of antibiotics.
Underlining that phages specific to streptococcal infection in Turkey will be characterized for the first time and brought to the world literature, Prof. Dr. Karaoğlu said, “Of course, in order for this study not to stay here and go further, we aimed to isolate bacterial viruses and in some cases phage isolation, which can be an alternative to antibiotics in a sense, and we presented a project to the Turkish Institute of Health Sciences in this area.
The project we gave TUSEBE was the isolation of group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GAS) phages and studies on the enzyme activity of the phage gene homo. If this study can be concluded successfully, our goal here is to create a phage culture collection with similar studies. To activate the phage-related therapy method to antibiotics, especially in superficial infections . ”
“ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION IN AREAS WHERE ANTIBIOTICS IS NOT ENOUGH”
Noting that they are looking for an effective method especially for children who are allergic to antibiotic drugs, Karaoğlu continued his words as follows:
“As a matter of fact, in the years before the discovery of antibiotics in the world, phage therapy was applied from 1940s to 1975-1985, especially in Russia. However, these studies have been limited by the introduction of antibiotics into our lives.
Although antibiotics have been discovered, they are facing the development of resistance. We lose about 5 percent of our patients, as well as all over the world, to lower respiratory tract infections. Phage therapy is a method that can be an alternative to these. We designed this project in order to start studies on this method. However, it will be the first study on streptococci in our country. After the completion of this study, we started out with the question of whether we could have an alternative option for children who may be allergic to drugs, especially in throat infections. I hope we will get positive results.
Of course, we have phage isolates, but we aim to make it usable as soon as possible with work, and to put it into the application phase in larger projects in the later stages. An alternative solution is phage therapy, especially in areas where antibiotics are not enough, especially in cases where we cannot use them.”
WHAT IS FAGE THERAPY?
Bacteriophage (or phage for short) means "bacteria eater" in Ancient Greek, and they are called bacterial viruses in the literature.
Phages cannot infect mammalian cells, including humans, but can live as obligate intracellular parasites of bacteria. Therefore, the moment they leave the cell in which they are parasites, their vital activities also stop. Bacteriophages have an interesting specificity, and with this feature, they only target specific bacteria and infect them. They do not harm the natural microflora (for example, human intestinal microflora) in their environment.
It is estimated that bacteriophages destroy about half of the world's bacteria every 48 hours.
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