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Phage Phorum
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| Viewing Page 1 of 1 (Total Posts: 20) |
| Author | Comment |
Andrea Edwards
May 4, 05 - 2:36 PM |
Phages and Cancer
I have a question. If bacteria could break down cells. Could they break down and destroy cancerous cells? Could we manipulate them into doing that? |
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Andrea Edwards
May 4th, 2005 - 2:45 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
I am just asking out of curiosity because I am doing a research paper on Phages, Titreing, And Aeromonas Salmonicida. I find this field very interesting especially since We are soon to be doing lab work on infecting fish with it and trying to save them with Phages. And I know nothing about Phages. If you could help I'd appreciate it because I can't find any site with real info on Phages. Thanks- ~Andrea |
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G.W. (Bill) Riedel
May 4th, 2005 - 9:34 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
If you look at some of the postings below you should find all the websites you need on phages .. if not google phages - or try http://www.phage.org and go to references. As for cancer, there is a paralell field of research - the use of viruses which grow on specific cancer cells - a recent issue of Time was devoted to that. What I was surprised at is that while phage therapy and the use of viruses to cure cancer use the same principle - targeted specialized viruses - the two fields appear not to cross-reference??? |
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Andrea Edwards
May 5th, 2005 - 2:30 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Okay thank you so much. I was just really curious and my Biology teacher, though being very intelligent, couldn't answer my question. I hope someday in the near future we will be able to find a cure for Cancer but for now it'll just be a Mystery. I have to go finish my project. I have to find out how you count Aermonoas Salmonicida... |
Aaron Simpson
 May 5th, 2005 - 3:06 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
ok i have searched over 35 pages relating to phages but all i am finding is thearapy related stuff and not allot of infomation on phage itself. Aside from doing my project as well i would like to know where are phages found? and how would you grow them. also is their a possibality that their is a phage or if we had to a mixture that could kill things like the flu and colds? I would go on in this questioning but i feel this is a long enough post so thank you. 
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G.W. (Bill) Riedel
May 5th, 2005 - 8:51 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Let's keep things straight - phages or bacteriopahges are viruses that are parasites of bacteria - so only bacterial infections can be cured with phage therapy - colds are caused by viruses!! For cancers the research is done with viruses that taget cancer cells - below is Time article reference: When Bad Bugs go Good, by Alice Park, March 28, 2005, p. 45 "Before the evening sun turns red another 22 Canadians from superbug infections will be dead!" The article by Alice Park on the use of cell-specific targeted viruses to destroy cancer cells was very interesting; however, this was the second time in the last few weeks that I was surprised that this area of science was not cross referenced with phage therapy, another field that uses cell specific targeted viruses to cure disease, namely antibitic-resistant superbug infections which today kill about 22 Canadians and 110 Americans daily. While these two technologies use essentially the same biologic principles they appear like two ships passing each other in the fog and I believe that much can be learned by integrating the study of these fields. While working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1917, the French-Canadian microbiologist, Felix d’Herelle ( http://selections.medecine-sciences.com/archives/Volume0/sms8/EnCouv.pdf ), experienced one of those rare eureka moments when he saw his pathogenic bacteria cultures being lysed - d’Herelle had discovered parasitic viruses which tend to be highly specialized for specific bacteria strains and which can kill large populations of bacteria relatively quickly without harming humans and animals. He named them bacteriophages – “bacteria eaters” and immediately recognized their potential as cures for bacterial infections at a time when neither sulfonamides nor antibiotics were available. He became a major advocate and practitioner of phage therapy, which was subsequently practiced wordwide to control bacterial infections. However, phage therapy fell into disuse in the West after the introduction of penicillin in the 1940’s. Phage therapy remained a significant medical technology in the former USSR, led by research and production facilities in Georgia ( http://www.phagetherapy.org ), and in Poland ( http://surfer.iitd.pan.wroc.pl/phages/ASM0408.html ). Recently phage therapy has made a come-back to America with the opening of the Phage Therapy Center, Mexico ( http://www.phageinternational.com ) providing a treatment option for those suffering superbug infections where antbiotics have failed. |
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Aaron Simpson
May 6th, 2005 - 2:48 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Yea my bad I should have thought about it a little more than that it was kinda a dumb question/questions but well where are phage found? 
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Andrea Edwards
May 6th, 2005 - 3:09 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Thanks so much. We are all Highschool students so were a bit Naive at times. Thanks for all your help. My project is done and I am very satisfied with the result of all my research. I hope someday to become imersed in this biology field because I find it so interesting. Once again, thank you and I hope to find out more on this site! |
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Aaron Simpson
May 19th, 2005 - 1:12 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Although my project is over i am still intrested in phages and what they have to offer science and the healing of desiease sory for my stupidity and i hope to keep updated on new phage findings |
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theTRUTH
May 20th, 2005 - 7:07 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
hello peeps... i had to laugh when i saw this thread.... may i suggest you go and ask the russians ? http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/p/ph/phage.htm why oh why do you ALWAYS want to steal other peoples history and scientific research ? I despair at times... oh by the way - the greeks were all fake too ;) you need to revise your history books me feels.... then we can speed up the internet a bit - without pointless questions bein asked all the time... have fun with your research tho - but its not really research - its fact finding aint it ? |
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theTRUTH
May 20th, 2005 - 7:10 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
i mean - research is about extending the frontiers of the known universe and not reinventing things ? i could be wrong of course... humility is something worth researching ? imma come back to you when my paper on that finished...
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Bill Riedel
May 22nd, 2005 - 8:26 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer - Choosing to let them die!
Hi theTRUTH: I agree with you - it makes me sick to see how many countries are withholding phage therapy from patients dying of superbug infections in the name of hubris when they have nothing to offer them. There is one company in Israel that has a technology agreement with a company in Russia and then there is Phage International doing it right: Wednesday May 18, 9:30 am ET Georgian Biomedical Preparations to be Used by a US Owned Company Bacteriophage-based Antibacterial Products from World-Renowned Eliava Institute to be Used by US Owned Phage Therapy Center in Mexico LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2005--The George Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology, Republic of Georgia, and Phage International Inc., Los Altos California, announced that they have signed an agreement whereby Eliava will become the supplier of bacteriophages for PII's new Phage Therapy Center in Tijuana Mexico. This is the first commercial use of phages in a medical clinic in the western world and marks a starting point in the promising collaboration between a scientific research center in the Republic of Georgia and a US owned Company. The Institute will test bacterial cultures from PTC patients for PIO-phage susceptibility, produce the appropriate phage and deliver it to PTC to eradicate the bacteria in suffering patients. "We are delighted that through this cooperation with the Eliava Institute, Phage Therapy Center Mexico will now be able to provide better access to this medical technology," said Ronald Goossens, president PII. "We look forward to making bacteriophage treatments more broadly available in the future". "The scientists at Eliava Institute are pleased to work with PII in treating patients on the American Continent using our phage preparations and look forward to educating the west on the benefits of bacteriophage technology," said Dr. Teimuraz Chanishvili, Institute Director. During the 1930's and 40's, bacteriophages were utilized in the United States to treat infections. The use of phages and research were subsequently dropped in the west in favor of antibiotics that became the panacea for treating all infections. The Eliava Institute, however, continued research and development of phage therapeutic technologies. Today bacteriophages represent a viable and effective alternative for fighting drug-resistant infections. Eliava, an 82 year-old Institute of the Academy of Sciences in the Republic of Georgia, is the world's scientific center for bacteriophage research and development. During the 1970s and 80s the Industrial Branch of the Eliava Institute produced bacteriophage products for military and civilian uses all over the Soviet Union. Phage Therapy Center Mexico, treats antibiotic-resistant infections and provides treatments that have saved people from amputation. www.phagetherapycenter.com Phage International, Inc. Los Altos, CA, a primary enabler of phage therapy in the western world, is in the process of opening a number of clinics. www.phageinternational.com Contact: Phage International David Hodges, 650-961-7262 dkhodges@phageinternational.com Phage International, Inc. 1278 Miramonte Avenue Los Altos, California 94024 650-961-7262 |
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theTRUTH
May 29th, 2005 - 12:05 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Thank you Bill Reidal for providing that information. I did not appreciate that bio-tech companies existed that have taken this out of the research lab and into production. I just thought that many phages had been identified and classified for particular uses. I did not realise that phages were capable of treating hardened bacterial infections where anti-biotics have failed either. Learn something new every day... |
Angela
Jun 4th, 2005 - 11:01 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Phages are also being studied as anti-cancer therapy to carry peptides which target tumor vasculature (blood vessels), since tumors create very diferent blood vessels than normal tissue. Its very cool (but I'm biased, since I work on this). So far, its worked in mice, and in one terminal cancer patient, the phages homed to the tumor within 15 mins of injection. If you're interested you could search pubmed for references....Dr Renata Pasqualini and Dr Wadih Arap are two authors you could search for there, and I'm sure you'd find the Nature papers they've written about this. |
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Bill Riedel
Jun 5th, 2005 - 7:56 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Hi Angela - I went to a lecture and have read a few papers on the use of viruses to treat cancer. What I wanted to know is how this approach is being looked at by the drug regulatory agencies. When one considers what is known about phage therapy and then reflects the little enthusiasm that regualtors show for phage therapy, one has to wonder how they will react to the use of actual viruses. Can you give us some answers? BTW - I think it is great to have someone working in the area of using viruses to treat cancer interested in phage therapy as I think the two fields have much in common - use of viruses to target cells or deliver cell-leathal drug. |
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Angela
Jun 6th, 2005 - 12:38 AM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
The use of viruses in cancer therapy is a little different from using phages. Oncolytic viruses target proteins involved in proliferation and cell survival - e.g. reactivating tumor suppressor genes like Rb and p53, thereby potentially allowing the cell cycle to occur normally again. In terms of regulation, from what I am aware of, oncolytic viruses are currently in trials. The FDA is going to need a lot more data on safety and efficacy before it is a standard therapy - full phase I-III trials definately. I've only read a few basic science papers about oncolytic viruses, so I'm not sure how far they've progressed in human trials, though I've seen mention of trials as early as 1956... The example of phage therapy I talked about, involves carrying short peptides (4-15 aa) which act as ligands on receptors found only on tumor blood vessels. The potential therefore is to use phages as vehicles for delivering cytotoxic drugs to the tumor, or pro-apoptotic substances (maybe TRAIL, FasL). While this is an exciting field, it is still pretty far from the clinic. My collaborators are still getting mega NIH grants to work on this, so my suspicion is that they think it has potential....but then again I'm only a first year graduate student, so I'm not really up on all the regulatory issues behind current therapies. |
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Tonyy
Feb 2nd, 2006 - 10:32 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer/Andrea Edwards
It's quite true, whether or no!!! |
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Stewart
May 19th, 2006 - 11:19 AM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Phage therapy for cancer seems to me to be the perfect treatment. If a phage can be developed to identify a specific cancerous cell then the cancer can be beaten. An effective phage therapy against cancer might only require a single cheap treatment, because once the phage hijacks cancer cells, the phage will duplicate itself and send more anti-cancers phages into the body, and this invasion replication and distribution process will continue until no target cancer cells remain, and the patient is cured. It is possible, even probable, that a portion of the people who have experienced spontaneous cancer remissions and cures were fortunate enough to have come in contact with a naturally occuring anti-cancer phage that destroyed their cancer. Speculation of course, but "saints" who have cured cancer patients may be carrying anticancer phages on their skin or in their lungs, and their hands-on cures may be innoculating the sick person with phages. The miracle where Christ cured a blind man by rubbing mud in the sightless man's eyes may have been a phage therapy. I think that this is highly probably. If I was in the anticancer business, I would focus exlusively on finding or developing anticancer phages. I would not limit myself to the phage as a delivery vehicle of anticancer drugs, because this phage will not replicate itself. We need a true phage that will invade, relicate, destroy the host then search and destroy more cells. Of course all cancers are not the same, but the tunour type cancers seems susceptible to phage therapies. Stewart. |
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Bill
Jun 10th, 2006 - 10:04 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Here in Ottawa, Canada there are at least two hospitals doing research on the use of viruses to cure cancer. If you google "Harnessing viruses to kill cancer" you will come up with some of the information. At CHEO (Children's hospital) in Ottawa a Dr. David Stojdl is doing the work according to an article in The Ottawa Citizen, June 3, 2006, C3. What is interesting is that this technology is also, like phage therapy, rather old and that the article starts with the same quote that is often used for phage therapy: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." While I have not done a lot of reading on this, some of the problems appear to be similar to phage therapy and the two fields should get together to cooperate! |
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Bill
Jun 10th, 2006 - 10:13 PM |
Re: Phages and Cancer
Just did a google of David Stojdl and came up with a short description of his research into using viruses to cure cancer at: http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/31004.html |
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