Phage Therapy
Bacteriophages are everywhere: on the table, in the ditch, in our intestines. As phage is a naturally occurring organism, it has the ability to adapt and modify to changing antibiotic resistance, being bacteria’s natural predator, there are great opportunities to discover “new” bacteriophage against those bacteria.
Phages provide a solution to the increasing risk of antibiotic resistance in patients, but also in agriculture, animal husbandry and food safety.
Bacteriophage therapy is the use of “good” bacterial viruses that invade bacterial cells and, in the case of lytic phages, disrupt bacterial metabolism and cause the bacterium to destruct (lyse). Phage Therapy is very effective when remedy pathogenic bacterial infections.
Phage can target multiple antibiotic resistant infections and also prove advantageous in treating infections which can’t be effectively treated with antibiotics due to poor blood circulation or bacterial biofilms, because of their ability to translocate within wounds and in the body. They are a helpful solution for treatment of infections in people with allergies to antibiotics, as well as the help protect the bacterial ecology (due to phage specificity) in the gut.
The G. Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology in Tbilisi, Georgia is one of the world leaders in phage therapy research, and has an unprecedented collection of bacteriophages which can be utilized for developing custom phage preparations.
Phage Therapy Centers
In Tbilisi are 2 clinics which use the phages of the Eliava Institute which are interesting for foreigners. The Eliava Phage Therapy Center and the Phage Therapy Center.
The
Eliava Phage Therapy Center
is one of the few centers in the world dedicated to phage therapy. It is part of the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, a research facility with broad experience in bacteriophage science and applications since 1923. It is located on the same premises as the Eliava Institute.
The Eliava Phage Therapy Center has specialists in the fields of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Urology, Gynecology and offers outpatient surgical consultations whose treatment strategies emphasize the use of bacteriophage as the cornerstone of complex medical service.
Phage therapy is a safe and effective treatment used against the following disease causing pathogens:
- Streptococcus,
- Staphylococcus,
- Enterococcus,
- coli,
- Proteus,
- Pseudomonas
-
other pathogenic bacteria.
