{"id":253044,"date":"2023-07-22T19:55:13","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T14:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=253044"},"modified":"2023-07-22T19:55:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T14:25:13","slug":"what-are-bacteriophages-the-good-viruses-that-fight-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/what-are-bacteriophages-the-good-viruses-that-fight-bacteria\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Bacteriophages, the \u2018good viruses\u2019 that fight bacteria?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/b>The post is based on the article<\/span> \u201cWhat are Bacteriophages, the \u2018good viruses\u2019 that fight bacteria?\u201d\u00a0 <\/b>published in<\/span> Indian Express on 21st July 2023.<\/b><\/p>\n

What is the News?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Scientists are exploring the potential of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are Bacteriophages?<\/b><\/h2>\n

A bacteriophage or phage is a virus that infects bacteria.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were discovered i<\/span>ndependently by Frederick W. Twort in Great Britain (1915) and F\u00e9lix d\u2019H\u00e9relle in France (1917).<\/span><\/p>\n

D\u2019H\u00e9relle coined the term bacteriophage, meaning \u201cbacteria eater,\u201d to describe the agent\u2019s bactericidal ability.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do <\/b>Bacteriophages kill bacteria?<\/b><\/h2>\n

B<\/span>acteriophages are harmless to human cells as they do not recognize them as their bacterial prey.<\/span><\/p>\n

They work by hunting down bacteria and attaching themselves to the surface of a bacterial cell, before injecting viral DNA material into the cell.<\/span><\/p>\n

The viral DNA then replicates inside the bacteria, sometimes by borrowing the DNA replication hardware of the bacteria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once all the bacteria are lysed (dead), they\u2019ll stop multiplying. Like other viruses, phages can lay dormant (in hibernation) until more bacteria show up.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Phage Therapy?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Phage therapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of bacterial infections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advantages of Phage Therapy:<\/b> It has reduced side effects and reduced risk of the bacteria developing resistance, since<\/span> bacteriophages are much more specific than antibiotics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 They are typically harmless not only to the host organism but also to other beneficial bacteria such as the gut microbiota, reducing the chances of opportunistic infections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disadvantages of <\/b>Phage Therapy:<\/b> Disadvantages include the difficulty of finding an effective phage for a particular infection; a phage will kill a bacterium only if it matches the specific strain.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cWhat are Bacteriophages, the \u2018good viruses\u2019 that fight bacteria?\u201d\u00a0 published in Indian Express on 21st July 2023. What is the News? Scientists are exploring the potential of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. What are Bacteriophages? A bacteriophage or phage is a virus… Continue reading What are Bacteriophages, the \u2018good viruses\u2019 that fight bacteria?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,9],"tags":[10500],"class_list":["post-253044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-public","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}