Newly Discovered Virus can Kill Resistant Bacteria
February 19, 2023 7:39 PM Subscribe
The fact that five potentially new species have appeared in local creeks, did surprise Clare Kirkpatrick. The somewhat surprising discovery was made during the coronavirus pandemic, when some of Kirkpatrick's students could not carry out their normal microbe studies in the laboratory and were therefore sent on field trips to local creeks to see if they had any interesting microbes to offer.
The fact that viruses exist in nature is not surprising, as they are the world's most widespread organism. They are everywhere and part of all kinds of microbial cycles and ecosystems, but the fact that five potentially new species have appeared in local creeks, did surprise Clare Kirkpatrick.
~~~~~
Many viruses are so-called bacteriophages (phages), i.e. that they kill bacteria, and Fyn8 is no exception. It can attack and kill the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium found naturally in soil and water. It is normally harmless towards healthy people, but like many other bacteria it has developed resistance to antibiotics and is found in hospitals.
via Happy Daze the "Good News Only" website
The fact that viruses exist in nature is not surprising, as they are the world's most widespread organism. They are everywhere and part of all kinds of microbial cycles and ecosystems, but the fact that five potentially new species have appeared in local creeks, did surprise Clare Kirkpatrick.
~~~~~
Many viruses are so-called bacteriophages (phages), i.e. that they kill bacteria, and Fyn8 is no exception. It can attack and kill the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium found naturally in soil and water. It is normally harmless towards healthy people, but like many other bacteria it has developed resistance to antibiotics and is found in hospitals.
via Happy Daze the "Good News Only" website
"and then you can treat the patient with exactly the phage that will kill the bacteria, explained Clare Kirkpatrick.
he adds that this strategy works even on bacteria which are resistant to all known antibiotics. "
I'm fairly sure that Clare (who I have actually met on several occasions) is not a He.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:28 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
he adds that this strategy works even on bacteria which are resistant to all known antibiotics. "
I'm fairly sure that Clare (who I have actually met on several occasions) is not a He.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:28 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm fairly sure that Clare (who I have actually met on several occasions) is not a He.
Minor derail but the lowercase h leads me to believe this is an editing error.
Underailed, this seems like good news but also freaks me out for some reason.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:44 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Minor derail but the lowercase h leads me to believe this is an editing error.
Underailed, this seems like good news but also freaks me out for some reason.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:44 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
It’s great that they found novel bacteria viruses (bacteriophages), as this expands our knowledge of how they work. But the headline is (unintentionally?) misleading. We know of a number of bacteriophages that infect this bacteria species; there’s nothing special about these phases that make them more likely to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria, though.
The general idea of using bacteriophages as medical therapy is older than using antibiotics, as the article touches on. But, we don’t use bacteriophages as treatment (generally) for a lot of reasons: the body views bacteriophages as ‘other’ and starts attacking them; bacteriophages destroying a large number of bacteria at once releases chemicals from the bacteria that our immune system really, really, really does not like; (and perhaps the number one reason) it’s hard to pair the right bacteriophage with the invading strain of bacteria, as small mutations or differences in the strain lead to the bacteria strain being naturally resistant to the bacteriophage. And it’s hard to do this quickly, when a patient has a bacterial infection in the hospital. These are all reasons on why we currently use antibiotics instead.
There is novel, exciting work of using natural bacteriophages that specifically target antibiotic resistant bacteria. The bacteriophage latch onto the molecular machinery that makes the bacteria resistant to antibiotics. This way, most bacteria cells die from the bacteriophage infection, but a couple bacteria will randomly mutate to become resistant to the bacteriophage by losing the antibiotic-related molecular machinery… thereby making the bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again. (This is Dr. Paul Turner’s work at Yale University). It’s been used a few times as an emergency intervention, mainly with chronic infections and with cystic fibrosis infections (so, also targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as with this article).
Bacteriophage therapy seems to gain and lose steam in a cycle of 5-10 years; it’s incredibly interesting to me, as an evolutionary micro biologist, to see how we can use evolutionarily principles about bacteriophage/bacteria co-evolution feasible translate to medical treatment.
posted by Peter Petridish at 4:50 AM on February 20, 2023 [20 favorites]
The general idea of using bacteriophages as medical therapy is older than using antibiotics, as the article touches on. But, we don’t use bacteriophages as treatment (generally) for a lot of reasons: the body views bacteriophages as ‘other’ and starts attacking them; bacteriophages destroying a large number of bacteria at once releases chemicals from the bacteria that our immune system really, really, really does not like; (and perhaps the number one reason) it’s hard to pair the right bacteriophage with the invading strain of bacteria, as small mutations or differences in the strain lead to the bacteria strain being naturally resistant to the bacteriophage. And it’s hard to do this quickly, when a patient has a bacterial infection in the hospital. These are all reasons on why we currently use antibiotics instead.
There is novel, exciting work of using natural bacteriophages that specifically target antibiotic resistant bacteria. The bacteriophage latch onto the molecular machinery that makes the bacteria resistant to antibiotics. This way, most bacteria cells die from the bacteriophage infection, but a couple bacteria will randomly mutate to become resistant to the bacteriophage by losing the antibiotic-related molecular machinery… thereby making the bacteria sensitive to antibiotics again. (This is Dr. Paul Turner’s work at Yale University). It’s been used a few times as an emergency intervention, mainly with chronic infections and with cystic fibrosis infections (so, also targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as with this article).
Bacteriophage therapy seems to gain and lose steam in a cycle of 5-10 years; it’s incredibly interesting to me, as an evolutionary micro biologist, to see how we can use evolutionarily principles about bacteriophage/bacteria co-evolution feasible translate to medical treatment.
posted by Peter Petridish at 4:50 AM on February 20, 2023 [20 favorites]
Agreed Peter Petridish, this article is odd. And the fact that they haven’t sequenced all five is also strange (this costs like $100 and takes a day). I think this is more like a situation where the researchers thought it was cool they found them in their own backyard, making lemonade from pandemic restrictions, & then they put out a press release that got picked up with a different narrative (‘first phases that can kill viruses’), which isn’t quite right.
For an EARLY discussion of phage therapy, I recommend the still-relevant book Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925)! If you can look past some of the deeply antiquated parts, it’s a pretty great book to understand the fervor that motivates some scientists (especially young ones), & it’s historically interesting because it comes from a time when people didn’t have a clear idea of how to conduct clinical trials & were wrestling with the ethics.
posted by Buckt at 5:46 AM on February 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
For an EARLY discussion of phage therapy, I recommend the still-relevant book Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925)! If you can look past some of the deeply antiquated parts, it’s a pretty great book to understand the fervor that motivates some scientists (especially young ones), & it’s historically interesting because it comes from a time when people didn’t have a clear idea of how to conduct clinical trials & were wrestling with the ethics.
posted by Buckt at 5:46 AM on February 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
It does say in the article that the bacteriophage were found by students as part of a course.
A couple of times, I've done discoveries with students, and I've found it's almost impossible to do the whole follow up, because students go in all directions and if you try to follow up with a new class, they won't be as motivated, or they will have other motivations and drag the project in a new direction. I won't say it's impossible, great work has been done in classes. But it's a genre that is hard to master.
posted by mumimor at 2:12 PM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
A couple of times, I've done discoveries with students, and I've found it's almost impossible to do the whole follow up, because students go in all directions and if you try to follow up with a new class, they won't be as motivated, or they will have other motivations and drag the project in a new direction. I won't say it's impossible, great work has been done in classes. But it's a genre that is hard to master.
posted by mumimor at 2:12 PM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I hear all the time about how the microbiome of basic dirt hasn't been explored fully yet. Why finding unknown microbes in local creeks is a surprise is... surprising to me. We've only just begun our journey understanding how this world works on a scale smaller than we can easily observe. I'm surprised there aren't entire foundations based on looking at water and soil samples from all kinds of places to see just what is in there.
posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on February 19, 2023 [4 favorites]