CONDITIONS TREATED WITH PHAGE THERAPY

Phage research is still in its infancy but some conditions are already being treated with viruses, and others might benefit soon.

LUNG INFECTIONS: The Eliava Institute in Tiblisi, Georgia, is regarded as the world phage centre, pioneering use of the therapy. Ten years ago it received just six phage orders a year from the West; now they are running at 75 a month. Among those using them is Andy Harper, 49, who has cystic fibrosis and now keeps control of infections caused by his condition with mail-order supplies of phages.

ACNE: Jenny Kim, a senior dermatologist at the University of California Los Angeles has been at the forefront of studies to show phages can ‘eat’ Propionibacterium acnes, the bacteria associated with severe spots resistant to antibiotics in one in four cases.

URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS: Cases of the lifethreatening blood poisoning condition sepsis have more than doubled in two years to in excess of 350,000 annually, according to NHS England. More than half begin as drug resistant urinary tract infections. Dr Marie-Noelle Vieu, a public health doctor in Lambeth, South London, is collaborating with Professor Martha Clokie, a phage expert based at the University of Leicester, on a research proposal to see if phages can tackle the problem.

CANCER: People with incurable skin, breast and brain cancers are to get injections of tumour-fighting phages at Rutgers Cancer Institute in the U.S. later this year. In tests on dogs, the phage, which was developed at Imperial College London, shrank tumours and, in some cases, made them disappear.