Researchers from McMaster University, with support from experts at Université Laval, Canada, have developed a new way to make lifesaving bacteriophages (phages) easier to use, more transportable and more accessible to patients who need them most.
A phage, commonly used in genetic research, is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea, naturally destroying bacteria in situations where antibiotics most often fail.
“[Phages] are… harder to use than traditional antibiotics because there are so many varieties,” said lead investigator Zeinab Hosseinidoust, chemical engineer, McMaster University.
Due to difficulty accessing them quickly and efficiently, specifically in cases of antibiotic-resistant infections, researchers at McMaster aimed to develop a simple new way to store, identify and share phages to make them more accessible to patients.
Published in Nature Communications, researchers developed a dry storage platform as part of its user-friendly new system, a pill-like medium that stores phages without refrigeration and combines them with an agent that quickly produces a visible glow when responding to a target infection that can stop them.
Using this medium, the team loaded a portable testing tray with thousands of phage samples to simultaneously search for a match. After 30 minutes to two hours, positive results become visible.
“Having quick access to such portable testing labs would bring speed and order to the way things happen today, when a clinic or hospital facing an emergency situation is often forced to send a desperate call-out for candidate phages to test for possible use,” said co-investigator Tohid Didar, mechanical engineer, McMaster University.
Furthermore, the technology would make it easier to use phages in non-medical applications, including agriculture, and researchers are seeking partners to develop the technology for wide use.
If successful, the technology “could revolutionise the way we use phages for different purposes,” said Didar.
