The phages
Precision phagotherapy to treat bacterial infections
The search for antibiotics seems to have reached a peak for several decades, and it puts bacteriophages back at the forefront of the solutions to this problem.
What is it?
Bacteriophages or phages are natural predator viruses that only infect bacteria. They do not infect eukaryotic cells, and are therefore harmless to humans, animals, plants, fish, etc. They are present in all aquatic and terrestrial environments and represent the most numerous biological species on Earth.
Phages have many qualities because they offer excellent efficacy against bacteria – including bacteria that are multi-resistant to antibiotics –, are very well tolerated due to their high specificity and adapt very quickly to bacterial mutations while respecting microbiota, unlike antibiotics.
Bacteria destruction mechanism
Bacteria destruction mechanism
Phages’ infectious cycle begins with the specific recognition of receptors located on the surface of the bacteria. The phage then injects genetic material into the bacteria. Then the infection cycle continues with the hacking of the bacterial machinery in order to produce the genome of the new phages and its structural proteins in large numbers. Following an assembling stage, the new phages are formed and their evacuation to the outside of the bacteria destroys it.
The multiplication of bacteriophages is swift and always dependent on the presence of the targeted bacteria. With lytic phages selected and produced by Pherecydes Pharma, such as the T4 phage, bacterial cells are immediately killed after replication of the virion. As soon as the cell is destroyed, the newly-created phages rapidly replicate the cycle as soon as they find new bacteria.
Already tested therapeutic applications
Pherecydes Pharma has developed a phage selection process based on extensive collections of bacterial strains of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. These strain libraries contain a significant proportion of antibiotic-resistant germs. Thus Pherecydes Pharma, in association with various partners, controls a comprehensive system for developing drugs based on therapeutic phages to fight deadly infectious diseases.
Spectacular results in terms of efficacy and safety have been observed in the context of compassionate treatments and have been published in scientific journalss. The first products are about to be evaluated in humans, in compliance with European standards in this field. Pherecydes Pharma also works to optimize products’ formulation, their stability over time and their pharmaceutical manufacturing process.
