March
14
Forgotten Cure Ch5-8
- In the 1940s-50s, Russia had scant resources and knowledge when it came antibiotics. Even though there was collaboration with the western allies, the lack of proper funding held back the production and use of antibiotics in the USSR. The USSR attempted to implement a state healthcare system that provided treatment without cost with inadequate funding, which is why it failed to be effective. So, alternative medicine was promoted by the state. this is the biggest influence for the use of phage therapy at the time as it was considered as alternative medicine. It gained widespread use due to the influence of the state health system and became the primary way to treat infectious diseases at the time.
- The two institutes and their founders suffered similar setbacks in terms of persecution and lack of cooperation of with leadership. But they both had different outcomes. The Eliva institute did not reap the same success as the phage therapy center. This is mainly due to how the death of Stalin favored the fate of the Phage Therapy Center in Wroclaw. Both institutes suffered due to persecution from leadership but when Stalin died, the individual who was the main driving force for this persecution, the institute was revived with passing of the petition for the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, which helped it gain global connections and flourish in the scientific community whereas the Eliva Institute struggled.
- The biggest challenge faced by phage therapy, which is what made many doctors skeptical of its effect, was to find phages that would not be immediately removed by the liver and the spleen. Merril accomplished this by using a phage called lambda. 7 hours after infecting the mice with phages , the surviving phages were extracted and reinjected into the mice. this process was called serial passage. After repeating the process was repeated eight times, the team acquired phages that lasted up to 18 hours in the bloodstream. the mice were also infected with multiple phages, which increased its effectiveness. the phages, named Argo 1 and Argo 2 were then used in another experiment to prove their effectiveness. four groups of mice were infected with a lethal dose of E.coli. three of the groups were treated, leaving one group as a control group. the untreated died but the treated survived. the phages also remained in circulatory system of the mice after recuperation, proving the effectiveness of the therapy.
- Antibiotics have been the spearhead for the treatment of infectious diseases for the past few decade. It continues to be our primary tool for fighting against infections but its effectiveness continues to wane. Resistance to antibiotics increases among bacteria. Companies like Phage Biotics, GangaGen and Exponential Biotherapies offer another possible tool for fighting against bacterial infections. their research into phage therapy holds the potential to defeat the rising tide of resistance in bacteria. More experimentation is required in the effectiveness of antibiotics and phage therapy together. together, they may poses a greater threat to bacteria and may be a possible way improve the effectiveness of treatment for infectious diseases. But a better understanding of the dynamics of the two together is required to properly apply them for treatment.
I like how you situate each of your answers with the history. I also agree with your answer to question 4, experimentation showing the effectiveness of phage therapy in combination with antibiotics will help make phage therapy more mainstream.