The Miracles of Phage Therapy
From Ancient Wonders to a Modern Medical Crisis
Dr Tom Patterson, an evolutionary sociobiologist, and Dr Steffanie Strathdee, an infectious disease epidemiologist, had been married for eleven years when they visited Egypt to explore the wonders of the pyramids and ancient ruins. However, their holiday took a horrific turn after Tom woke up with suspected food poisoning that quickly developed into something much sinister.
Battle Against an Unseen Enemy
After being rushed to hospital with suspected acute pancreatitis and cysts the size of American footballs in the abdomen, doctors were baffled how a healthy man could get so ill, so quickly and appear to not show signs of getting better. Further testing revealed a severe infection by one of the ESKAPE pathogens, a collection of seven of the most dangerous superbugs. Acinetobacter baumannii is nicknamed Iraqibacter as it is prevalent in soldiers and military contractors with shrapnel injuries. A. baumannii is considered the most difficult to treat of the 7 pathogens due to its extreme and extensive resistance to antibiotics. After Steff’s desperate searching on PubMed for alternative treatments, she stumbled upon emerging clinical trials exploring phage therapy, viruses that exist all around us that can infect bacteria.
Antibiotics vs Phage Therapy : Precision in Fighting Infections
For the average infection, the body’s immune system is able to detect and destroy the bacteria before they cause harm. Sometimes however the body needs extra help to either kill or stop the infection from spreading, so a doctor may prescribe antibiotics. The only problem is antibiotics are like releasing a bomb on our bodies microbiome; the bad bacteria is killed, but also the good bacteria that help protect us, leaving the body more vulnerable to infections. Whereas bacteriophages are like targeted missiles allowing precise machinery to identify and kill the specific bacteria, whilst not damaging human cells. Phages also have the ability to adapt; as bacteria get smarter, so do phages.
However, the problem is, at any time, there is an estimated 1031 (ten million trillion trillion) phages in existence. Scientists needed to find specific phages capable of targeting A. baumannii from environmental samples like sewage, dust, and water associated with the infection. Ideally a phage ‘cocktail’ needed to be made, a mixture of several phages in provide the best chance to defeat the bacteria.
Global Collaboration to Save a Life
After weeks of isolating, harvesting and purifying a phage cocktail, a gamble had to be taken to try and save Tom’s life with this untested treatment. 3 days later, he awoke from his coma and in March 2016 became the first person in the US to be successfully treated with phage therapy administered intravenously. In all, he survived 7 cases of septic shock, multiple organ system shutdowns and dozens of hallucinations over 9 months. This result was only possible, Steff says, due to dedicated time and effort of individuals all over the world. From lab scientists and PhD students in San Diego, doctors at the FDA and Belgian Military Hospital and US Naval Lieutenant Commanders: people rallied and went above and beyond to give Steff a fighting chance to save her husband.
Future of Phage Banks
Steff and Tom were able to return to work, exactly a year after he was taken off life support. Both spend time sharing their story and are dedicated to educating the scientific community and the public about AMR and phage therapy, hoping to help others in similar situations to theirs. This case highlights the importance of developing phage banks, collections of phages, to allow faster and more effective treatments against life-threatening infections. Eventually the hope is by researching and banking phages, we will be able to develop effective weapons to defend ourselves against the superbug crisis.
Information in this blog was taken from ‘The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug’ by Steffanie Strathdee, Teresa Barker and Thomas Patterson.
Further reading about Tom’s case
The Perfect Predator (2015). The Perfect Predator – Steffanie Strathdee & Thomas Patterson. [online] [Accessed 2024, December 20]. Theperfectpredator.com. Available at: https://theperfectpredator.com/.
Schooley, R.T., Biswas, B., Gill, J.J., Hernandez-Morales, A., Lancaster, J., Lessor, L., Barr, J.J., Reed, S.L., Rohwer, F., Benler, S., Segall, A.M., Taplitz, R., Smith, D.M., Kerr, K., Kumaraswamy, M., Nizet, V., Lin, L., McCauley, M.D., Strathdee, S.A. and Benson, C.A. (2017). Development and Use of Personalized Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutic Cocktails To Treat a Patient with a Disseminated Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Infection. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, [online] [Accessed 2024, December 20]. 61(10). doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/aac.00954-17.
Garnett, C. (2019). Personal Quest Resurrects Phage Therapy in Infection Fight. [online] [Accessed 2024, December 20]. NIH Record. Available at: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2019/03/22/personal-quest-resurrects-phage-therapy-infection-fight.
The information and opinions expressed in this blog post represent those of the original author of the blog. They do not necessarily reflect and represent the views and opinions of the Phage Collection Project or its staff.