2-18-19 — The Forgotten Cure by Anna Kuchment
1. Describe the role that locusts, dysentery and war had in the discovery of bacteriophage.
While studying bacterial cultures from sick locusts, d’Herelle discovered clear spots in the bacterial lawns, later to be known as “plaques.” This was his first proof that there was something smaller than known microbes. This was later reinforced when, because of dysentery cases suffered during the war, some patients mysteriously and quickly recovered. d’Herelle recognized the same plaques in there cultures, and began experimenting with the application of this unknown microorganism in order to heal soldiers dying of this disease.
2. Discuss the characteristics of d’Herelle that led him to be a successful scientist. How did he compare to Georgi Eliava? What happened to the Eliava’s?
d’Herelle had a uniquely selfless drive to study science. He was self-taught, having never attended university, and wasn’t interested in money as much as others. d’Herelle did, however, possess some unfortunate traits. His lack of formal education made him lacking in credibility among the scientific community, and he did make a few assertions that were false that he would’ve understood had he received a real science education. Eliava was born into privilege and became close friends with d’Herelle. They were both incredibly intelligent and had a drive to discover more in their field. Eliava was ultimately executed a few years after Stalin’s rise to power after an officer with a vendetta saw a chance to get back at the scientist for having the traits that he lacked.
3. Discuss the influence war and politics had on the spread of phage therapy.
War initially helped push for the spread of phage therapy, as the need for medicine for soldiers seemed to be solvable by phage usage; however, as the war heated up, more effective alternatives to phage therapy were discovered and popularized. Phage therapy was isolated to small lab groups here and there, but widespread application was halted.
4. What are some of the reasons that the spread of phage therapy failed?
Sulfa drugs were developed that were easy to produce and got consistent results. Using phage therapy, it was difficult to get consistent results. There was also ethical controversy involving control groups and whether it was acceptable to deny a group phage therapy for the sake of having a control group when there was a high likelihood the control group would have significantly more fatalities than the experimental group. Again, d’Herelle’s attitude didn’t gain him any respect in the scientific community, thus pushing readers to his competitors, even if they were incorrect in their assertions.
5. How did the physicists Delbruck and Luria end up as part of the Phage Group? What contributions did they make to phage biology? Why did phage biology die out in the 70’s?
Both Delbruck and Luria were interested in combining physics and biology, and thus molecular biology was born. They began studying bacteriophages and were able to determine that genetic information was DNA and not proteins. The final nail was hit into phage therapy’s coffin when the rediscovery of penicillin brought a new, first-of-its-kind superdrug to the world. Penicillin wasn’t effective on every illness, some of which having been shown to be susceptible to phage therapy, but it was still preferred. The only places that held on to phage therapy were countries in the Caucasus.
