Friday, March 6th, 2009

Viral Bacteria-Killers

This image depicts the structure of the T4 virus, one type of bacteriophage. Frederick A. Eiserling/UCLA and Petr Leiman/Purdue Department of Biological

Could engineered viruses help conquer antibiotic-resistant bacteria? Writing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers propose a high-tech update to phage therapy in which bacteriophage viruses are specially designed to target parts of antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. The engineered phage viruses would be used in conjunction with regular antibiotics. The phages, the researchers believe, would infect the bacteria and produce a protein that can disrupt a repair mechanism that contributes to drug resistance. The bacteria would then be susceptible to a knockout punch from the antibiotics. So far, the work has only been tested in mice -- but the researchers say it is promising. We'll find out more.