Phase Therapy: Cure for Chronic Wounds

• 18 Jan 2022

A team of scientists from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) have found a cure for those suffering from chronic wounds, particularly with diabetic foot ulcers.

Types of Wounds

• Wound: A wound is defined as a breach in the skin or body tissues due to injury.
• Acute Wound: An acute wound is defined as a “recent break that is yet to progress through sequential stages of healing”.
• Chronic Wound: The wounds where normal healing process is stalled due to underlying pathology (vascular and diabetes) or infection beyond three months is defined as chronic wound.

Concern

• Infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and biofilm formation halt healing progress. These wounds cause significant psychological and physical morbidity.

Solution

• BHU researchers used Bacteriophage therapy as a solution to antibiotic-resistant bacteria to heal acute and chronic wounds.
• The study projected that specific phage therapy is equally effective regardless of the diabetic or non-diabetic status of the patient though the healing was relatively delayed in diabetic patients.

Bacteriophage

• A bacteriophage is a type of virus that infects bacteria. In fact, the word "bacteriophage" literally means "bacteria eater," because bacteriophages destroy their host cells. All bacteriophages are composed of a nucleic acid molecule that is surrounded by a protein structure.

Legality Issue

• In 2019, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first US clinical trial for intravenous phage therapy. Phage therapy has many potential applications in human medicine as well as dentistry, veterinary science, and agriculture.
• Bacteriophages are not approved for treatment in India though clinical trials are underway.