Fight fire with fire How to kill viruses resistant bacteria

Can viruses be used to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria??

Bacteria increasingly show resistance to antibiotics. This represents an ever-increasing threat to global health. According to projections, millions of people will die soon each year as drugs stop acting. A German research team tackles this problem with an unusual approach. The researchers release the natural enemies on the bacteria: viruses.

Dr. Li Deng is a virus researcher at Helmholtz Zentrum München. She and her team investigate whether viruses are specific for controlling bacteria. After all, they are the natural enemies. The interest in new ways to fight bacteria is great. The research, which is still in its infancy, is supported by 1.5 million euros in funding from the European Research Council.

Viruses may be useful as a new cure for bacterial infections. The bacteriophages are bacteria-eating viruses from which a German research team would like to develop an antibiotic alternative. (Image: psdesign1 / fotolia.com)

Gloomy outlook - Ten million deaths every year

"Around 700,000 people worldwide have died from the non-action of antibacterial drugs," write the Munich researchers in a press release on the young field of research. If development continues at this rate, around 10 million people would die every year from bacterial infectious diseases in 2050, the researchers warned at Helmholtz Zentrum.

Bacteria eating viruses

At the center of research are the so-called bacteriophages. These are viruses that eat bacteria. "Our approach uses viruses or derived inhibitors for natural bacterial control," explains Li Deng. The research team hopes to be able to develop an alternative to antibiotics from these bacteriophages. So far, however, one knows too little about the molecular mechanisms that lead to the antibacterial effect. In addition, there are currently only a limited number of known and isolated bacteriophages, according to Deng.

Young and ambitious research

Li Deng's team now wants to identify the underlying mechanisms of viral bacterial inhibition. The first step is to investigate how the available bacteriophages react to individual resistant bacterial strains. Subsequently, the underlying mechanism of action is to be decrypted. In the final step, a bacteriophage therapy against bacterial infections will be developed.

One of the most important challenges of our time

"The rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance and the devastating consequences for those affected make the topic one of the most important scientific challenges of our time," emphasizes Dr. Li Deng. The virologist sees her research as a contribution to society.

Bacterial resistance on the rise

Recently, the World Health Organization WHO declared the bacterial disease tuberculosis the most dangerous infectious disease in the world. Every year more than 550,000 diseases are caused by resistant strains, in which drugs no longer work. So there is an urgent need for an antibiotic alternative. (Vb)