engleski

From Bacteriophage to Antibiotics and Back

Life is a phenomenon, and evolution has given it countless forms and possibilities of survival and formation. Today, almost all relationship mechanisms between humans who are at the top of the evolutionary ladder, and microorganisms which are at its bottom are known. Preserving health or life is not just an instinctive response to threat anymore ; rather it is a deliberate action and use of knowledge. During major epidemics and wars which create great suffering, experiences of the man-disease (cause) relationships were examined, so we can note the use of bacteriophages in Poland and Russia before and during the Second World War, while almost at the same time antibiotic therapy was introduced. Since bacteriophages “tracked” the evolution of bacteria, the mechanism of their action lies in the prokaryotic cell, and it is not dangerous for the eukaryotic cell of human parenchyma. It is, therefore, necessary only to reuse these experiences nowadays when we are convinced that bacteria have an inexhaustible genetic and phenotypic resistance mechanism of their own. Antibiotics continue to represent the foundation of health preservation, but now they work together with specific viruses – bacteriophages that we can produce and apply in the context of multi-resistance, as well as for the preparation of new pharmacological preparations. This new approach promises knowledge and possibilities for a new antibiotic-bacteriophage model.

antibiotics ; antibiotic resistance ; bacteriophage ; historical overview

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