Bacteriophages (Greek: “bacteria eaters”) are writing an eternal success story, probably existing since time immemorial when bacteria developed in evolution. Here, another success story is meant: their history in medical therapy which began soon after their dual discovery by Frederick Twort and Felix d’Hérèlle more than 100 years ago and, after numerous ups and downs, has now arrived in the much-cited “renaissance of the phages”. Once phages have been well characterised biologically including their genomic properties, they can supplement or replace antibiotics when infections are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Phage therapy can be lifesaving for patients being out of antibiotic therapy,they have proven their success in countless individual therapy cases mainly in the former Sovjet Union, but in modern Western medicine, strict standards and legal regulations for the quality of phage preparations and evidence-based clinical studies are necessary before authorization for therapy. Phages are defined as medical drugs so the medical drug laws apply. Re-introducing phage therapy in the West is complex and requires intensive co-operation of experts from medicine, science, pharmacy, the regulatory field and ultimately the politics. Phages are the most abundant living entities, however, the challenging avenue towards therapeutic use is shown here including the various modalities of formulation and application, as well as other interesting aspects on phages in research.
Dr. Christine Rohde is a microbiologist and heads the Clinical Phages and Regulatory Curatorship of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ GmbH, Braunschweig. Since almost 20 years, she is actively working on the re-introduction of phage therapy in Europe. The constantly growing DSMZ phage collection bears the largest phage biodiversity in Europe, serves the global scientific community and also provides valuable resources for own research projects.