Posted on 05/22/2019 12:06:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin
It's a new kind of living antibiotic made out of viruses that have been genetically modified using the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
"What CRISPR is able to do I...selectively modify genes in the viruses to target the bacteria,"
The approach...involves viruses known as bacteriophages (called phages for short). Phages are the natural enemies of bacteria. They can infect and destroy bacteria by reproducing in large numbers inside them until the microbes literally explode.
Locus scientists have created a cocktail of three phages that have been modified using CRISPR, which was discovered by studying the immune systems of bacteria.
"What we've learned how to do is reprogram that immune system to attack itself," says Paul Garofolo, the company's CEO. "We load the viruses up with CRISPR constructs, which essentially work like little Pac-Men. They go into a target bacteria cell, and they chew up the DNA of that target. It makes them much more potent killers."
We've been using antibiotics, which really have a scorched-earth approach to the treatment of infections. They don't just kill the bacteria that we want to kill. They kill friendly bacteria in our microbiome as well."
The microbiome comprises the trillions of friendly microbes that inhabit the human body.
"The potential is to groom the microbiome — to weed out unhealthy bacteria and to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in our microbiome..."
Other scientists agree that the strategy is promising, especially given the threat posed by superbugs.
But..."In some senses, using engineered phages is going to be a bit like running before you can walk. It's hard to improve something without knowing about how the thing you're trying to improve works,"
And there's always the chance it could backfire.
"The concern is that you could essentially end up converting harmless bacteria into potentially dangerous ones,"
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Of possible interest....
What could possibly go wrong?
I’ve seen this movie.
It doesn’t end well...............
Scientists also created a wonder drug to cure morphine addiction!
Ask the viridirans on star trk voyager
That is how HIV works. Pretty clever. I wonder what the aftereffects are that will only be discovered after widespread use.
Locus scientists have created a cocktail of three phages that have been modified using CRISPR, which was discovered by studying the immune systems of bacteria.
...
How savage that we don’t give bacteria a break for helping us out.
“But Hatfull worries that not enough research has been done so far to really understand bacteriophages.”
If he said this he is incredibly ignorant. Phages have been intensively studied for over 50 years. I worked in a phage lab in the 1970’s and people worked with them decades before that. We know a tremendous amount, have sequenced their genomes, modified them, determined the crystal structure of their proteins, etc. I suggest he start reading the literature.
Two words
Colloidal silver
Modern medicine KNOWS silver is by far the worlds greatest antibiotic and antiviral medicine
Because it is free they won’t admit it
It is currently in over 50,000 X ternal antibiotic items and yet Modern allopathic medicine and still claims it does not work internally and has no opinion of its efficacy on viruses
The silver ion is 100% effective against all single celled organisms
This stuff always reads like the newspaper headlines at the start of a sci fi movie.
What could possibly go wrong? /sarc
Then I don’t want it in my body, because it will kill all my gut bacteria.
Robocop, sweet!
“Robocop, sweet!”
i wondered if anyone would get the reference ... one of the all time great movies!
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