The

bacteriophage
1. Definition

2. The potential

3. The result
Definition
• A phage is a virus
• Their head is an icosahedron, a sort of dice with 20 faces and 30 edges.
• It contains the genetic material of the virusand often sits on a long tail that has
leg-like fibers.
There are more phages on earth They are probably everywhere living
than every other organism things exist, billions are on your hands,
combined, including bacteria. in your intestines and your eyelids
• Like any other virus, phages need a
host to survive and reproduce.
• Up to 40% of all bacteria in the oceans
are killed by them every single day.

• They specialize.
• Usually, a phage has chosen one specific
bacteria and maybe some of its very close
relatives.
When a phage finds its
victim, it connects its tail
fibers with receptors and
uses a sort of syringe to
puncture a surface.
In a weird motion, the Within minutes, the
phage squeezes its tail bacteria is taken over. It's
and injects its genetic now forced to
information. manufacture all the parts
of new phages
They only stop when the
bacteria is filled up with brand-
new phages.In the final
step,they produce 'endolysin',a
powerful enzyme that punches
a hole in the bacteria
• The pressure is so high that
the bacteria sort of vomits
out all of its insides and dies.
• New phages are released
and begin the cycle anew.
The potential
• In the past a single cut or a sip from the wrong puddle could kill you.
• But then, about 100 years ago, we found a solution in nature.
• By accident, we found fungi that produced compounds that killed bacteria: antibiotics.
• Suddenly, we had a powerful super weapon. Antibiotics were so effective that we stopped
thinking of bacteria as monsters.
• We used antibiotics more and more for less
and less serious causes.
• But bacteria are living things that evolve and
one by one they started to become immune
against our weapons.
• This continued until we had created what
are called 'superbugs’, bacteria immune to
almost everything we have.
• In the US alone, more than 23,000 people
die from resistant bacteria in 2017.

• By 2050, superbugs could kill more humans

a year than cancer. The days when a cut or
bladder infection or a cough could kill you or
your loved ones are coming back.
But it turns out that phages, our tiny killer virus robots, could save us. We can inject
them into our bodies to help cure infections.

Phages are very very specialized killers of bacteria. So specialized,

in fact, that humans are completely immune to them
Antibiotics are like carpet bombing, Phages are like guided missiles that
killing everything even the good only attack what they're supposed to
bacteria in our intestines that we
don't want to harm
• If we use phages to kill bacteria, won't bacteria develop ways of
defending themselves?
• There has been an arms race between them and bacteria for billions of
years and so far, they're doing great.
This has already been The bacteria 'Pseudomonas
successfully tested Aeruginosa', one of the most
with a patient who had feared bacteria, infected the
no other hope left man's chest cavity. They are
naturally resistant to most
antibiotics and can even
survive an alcoholic hand gel.
After years of suffering, a After a few weeks, the
few thousand phages infections had completely
were directly inserted into disappeared.
his chest cavity together
with antibiotics the
bacteria were immune to
The result
Unfortunately, this treatment is still experimental and pharma companies are still reluctant
to invest the necessary billions in a treatment that has no official approval yet.
• But things are finally changing.
• In 2016, the largest phage clinical trial
to date began and phages are getting
more and more attention.
• And we better get used to it because
the era in which antibiotics have been
our super weapon is drawing to a close.

Credit: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell