Here I would like to return to this idea not only for obtaining vaccines, but by pointing out that this type of trick can also be used to combat multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria. When these are not enough to combat bacterial infections, some medical teams resort to a class of viruses that infect the bacteria themselves. Phage viruses, as they are called, have the specificity of specifically targeting certain types of bacteria. These viruses require the cellular machinery of bacteria to reproduce, thereby destroying their host. As with antibiotics, bacteria eventually adapt to viruses. The difference here is that viruses also adapt to these new bacteria so that this co-evolution constantly provides new weapons in the fight against bacterial infections.
It should be noted that phage viruses, as their name indicates, infect only bacteria and not eukaryotic cells. Hence, it is harmless to our species. The study to which my previous article refers relates specifically to this type of virus that infects bacteria. The ability to make them evolve more quickly in the laboratory would make it possible to obtain phages against which antibiotic-resistant bacteria cannot be weaponized. Of course, they will eventually become so, but not before other new bacterial viruses are obtained in the laboratory, so that they will always remain one step ahead in this microbial duel until new antibiotics are obtained.
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Enzibiotics
We have every right to question the possibility of viruses, even those that are harmless to our species, being evolved and selected for injection into the human body for therapeutic purposes. Unlike those used in the vaccine, these viruses are not attenuated. Indeed, the approach proposed here suggests parallels with RNA vaccines. Likewise, this type of vaccine only includes a specific particle of the virus The work has made it possible to use just one phage virus molecule. Instead of its RNA, an enzyme is selected and designed to puncture the wall of only some bacteria. The resulting effect is similar to that of an antibiotic, and thus, this class of molecules is called enzybiotics (short for the words “enzyme” and “antibiotic”). These enzybiotics therefore have the advantage of better controlling their effects in the human body.
The accelerated development of phage viruses under laboratory control would make it possible to select specific enzymes from the viruses obtained that prove to be the most effective in infecting bacterial species that are most resistant to antibiotics and pose a risk to human health, whether they are staphylococcal actions. Gold or other.
