NIAID grants $2.5m to 12 institutes for bacteriophage therapy research

A branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has granted $2.5m to 12 institutes across the world for bacteriophage therapy research.

The 12 lucky recipients are: University of Pittsburgh; PhagePro, Inc. (Boston); University of Connecticut (Storrs); Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta); University of Wisconsin-Madison; Texas A&M Agrilife Research (College Station); Queens College, University of New York; Harvard School of Public Health (Boston); Guild Associates, Inc. (Dublin, Ohio); Geneva Foundation (Tacoma, Washington); University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York).

These constitute NIAID’s first series of grants directed exclusively for bacteriophage or “phage” therapy research, a novel field that could offer new ways of fighting antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.

According to a CDC report in 2019, in the US, over 2.8 million infections are caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens resulting in over 35,000 deaths each year.

The viruses called bacteriophages can debilitate or kill certain types of bacteria while leaving other bacteria and human cells intact. Researchers hope to produce new anti-bacterial therapeutics by collecting naturally occurring phages, or by engineering or altering phages to exhibit certain properties.

As phages infect and eliminate bacteria by producing compounds such as antibiotics that kill the bacteria, phages can be employed in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections. Moreover, research suggests that a combination therapy that includes both antibiotics and phages could prevent bacteria from becoming drug resistant.

Although the first US-based phage therapy clinical trials have begun recently, scientists were aware of phages and their ability to eliminate bacteria since 1917. American patients have received phage therapy only under emergency investigational new drug protocols, while in eastern Europe phage therapy is used more often than in the US, but its efficacy still leaves much to be desired.

NIAID director Anthony S Fauci, said: “In recent decades, multidrug-resistant bacteria, particularly those that cause potentially deadly diseases like tuberculosis, have become a serious and growing global public health concern. With these awards, NIAID is supporting research needed to determine if phage therapy might be used in combination with antibiotics—or replace them altogether—in treating evolving antibiotic-resistant bacterial diseases.”