Bacteriophage Therapy as an Alternative to Antibiotics: A Dead End or A Solution?
Keywords:
Bacteriophage Therapy; Bacteriophage Resistance; Antibiotic Resistance; Biofilm; Challenges of the Pharmaceutical Industry; Microbiome
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance has been around for years and could lead to a serious crisis in the near future. If the problem of antibiotic resistance is not solved, antimicrobial resistance is predicted to increase, killing 10 million people annually by 2050 (more than the number of cancer deaths), and costing the global economy approximately $100 trillion USD, because of this, it will need the rapid development of alternative therapies. This issue prompted scientists to find a solution; the use of bacteriophages as an alternative to antibiotics is one of these tactics. In this review article, I will first focus on bacteriophages from various aspects and then, by analyzing the available information, I will try to answer the following questions:
- Given the meager standard clinical data and characteristics of bacteriophages, is bacteriophage therapy a safe and reliable method?
- Given the short time left before the antibiotic resistance crisis, is it cost-effective to invest in bacteriophage?
- Are bacteriophages a double-edged sword? (Besides being used to treat bacterial diseases in the future, do bacteriophages have the potential to become a human virus in the future?)
