An international panel led by the German Society for Infectious Diseases (DGI) has published the first internationally coordinated clinical guidelines for personalized phage therapy, which uses selected viruses to kill harmful bacteria, the German Center for Infection Research said in a release republished by ScienceDaily on Nov. 4. The consensus statement appeared in Nature Medicine.
Related: More health and medicine coverage.
What the guidelines cover
The panel included 20 professional organizations, 18 international experts with regulatory representatives, and two patient advocacy groups, according to the release. It set more than 60 recommendations on how phages should be selected, tested, made, given and monitored. The guidelines also cover laboratory standards, quality control, records and research priorities.
Not a routine treatment
The guidelines do not recommend phage therapy as a routine treatment for bacterial infections, the release said. They say it may be considered when standard treatments have failed, are unavailable or cannot be used safely.
Properly made and given phages generally appear safe, but controlled trials have not shown how reliably the treatment works, according to the release.
Early results
In a Belgian case series of 100 people treated with phages, 77% improved clinically, and in 61% tests no longer found the targeted bacteria, the release said. Observational studies like that cannot show that phages caused the improvement, it noted.
How treatment would work
Because each phage targets specific bacteria, labs must first run a “phage match” to confirm a candidate virus kills the patient’s strain, according to the release. The guidelines recommend that a team including the treating doctors, clinical microbiologists and phage experts make treatment decisions. More research news is in Science.
Sources
- ScienceDaily (German Center for Infection Research release): Scientists turn viruses into weapons against deadly superbugs
- Nature Medicine: A consensus-based guideline for personalized bacteriophage therapy
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