{"593453":{"#nid":"593453","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Bacteria-Killing Virus Teams Up with Animal Immune Response to Cure Acute Infections","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EEDITOR\u0026#39;S NOTE: The figure showing the effect of phage therapy on mice was added on July 18, 2017.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs poses a serious public health threat.\u0026nbsp; In response, scientists and clinicians are exploring alternative ways to cure bacterial infections that are untreatable by antibiotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOne approach is to use bacteria-killing viruses \u0026ndash; also known as bacteriophage, or phage. Phage therapy has been used for nearly a century outside the U.S., most prominently in Russia and Georgia, the former Soviet republic. Clinical trials are ongoing in Europe, including \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.phagoburn.eu\/phagoburn-clinical-trial.html\u0022\u003Ea wound burn treatment trial involving multiple hospitals\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the U.S., recent successes have heightened interest in moving phage therapy to the clinic.\u0026nbsp; A dramatic example is the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/health.ucsd.edu\/news\/releases\/Pages\/2017-04-25-novel-phage-therapy-saves-patient-with-multidrug-resistant-bacterial-infection.aspx\u0022\u003Ecure of a University of California, \u0026nbsp;San Diego, professor who was near death from an infection by the toxin-excreting superbug \u003Cem\u003EAcinetobacter baumannii\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYet, many of the mechanisms underlying phage therapy remain unclear. \u0026ldquo;The key conceptual challenge is that phage kills individual bacterial cells but not necessarily an entire population of bacteria,\u0026rdquo; says \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/joshua-weitz\u0022\u003EJoshua S. Weitz, professor of biological sciences\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/user\/joshua-weitz\u0022\u003Ephysics\u003C\/a\u003E at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn phage therapy, successful treatment has long been assumed to be due primarily to the phage\u0026rsquo;s bacteria-killing action. \u0026nbsp;Now, work by Weitz and his team at Georgia Tech and groups led by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.pasteur.fr\/en\/member\/laurent-debarbieux\/\u0022\u003ELaurent Debarbieux\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.pasteur.fr\/en\/member\/james-di-santo\/\u0022\u003EJames P. Di Santo\u003C\/a\u003E at the Institut Pasteur, in Paris, France, finds that immune cells of the animal host act synergistically with phage to cure an otherwise fatal respiratory infection in mice.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;This joint project analyzed the conditions necessary to eliminate pathogen populations when host immune responses are compromised,\u0026rdquo; Weitz says. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.chom.2017.06.018\u0022\u003EThe work is published in the July 2017 issue of Cell Host \u0026amp; Microbe\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers investigated the effect of host immunity in an animal model of acute pneumonia caused by multiple-drug-resistant \u003Cem\u003EPseudomonas aeruginosa,\u003C\/em\u003E a pathogen on the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/drugresistance\/biggest_threats.html\u0022\u003Eserious-threats list of the Centers for Disease Control \u0026amp; Prevention (CDC)\u003C\/a\u003E. The team \u0026ndash; including the paper\u0026rsquo;s joint first authors, Institut Pasteur\u0026rsquo;s Dwayne R. Roach and Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s Chung Yin (Joey) Leung \u0026ndash; integrated preclinical experimental data with mathematical modeling to characterize interactions between bacteria, phage, and the immune response.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe animal studies indicate that neutrophils \u0026ndash; an important type of white blood cell that is part of the body\u0026rsquo;s major innate defense \u0026ndash; are essential to cure the infection during phage treatment. Leveraging results from preclinical experiments and mathematical models, the researchers conclude that neutrophils eliminate what the phage cannot defeat: emerging, phage-resistant \u003Cem\u003EP. aeruginosa \u003C\/em\u003Ecells.\u0026nbsp; Together, phage and neutrophils synergistically cure the acute bacterial infection.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe finding has important implications. \u0026ldquo;In terms of clinical consequences, one could reconsider the selection of patients likely to benefit from phage therapy. It may not be appropriate or recommended for people with severe immunodeficiency,\u0026rdquo; Debarbieux says.\u0026nbsp; The work will help identify candidates for human phage therapy and could be used to explore synergistic interactions between phage and immune responses in other disease contexts, such as cystic fibrosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA second paper describing mathematical details of the therapeutic synergy between phage and the immune system, jointly authored by Leung and Weitz, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0022519317303235\u0022\u003Eis published\u0026nbsp;in the Journal of Theoretical Biology\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWork at Georgia Tech was supported by an U.S. Army Research Office grant (W911NF-14-1-0402).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWork at Institut Pasteur was supported by Fondation EDF, Vaincre la Mucoviscidose (IC1011), Association CA.ZO.LA. Luttons contre la mucoviscidose, and the European Respiratory Society (RESPIRE2\u0026ndash;2015\u0026ndash;8416).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Phage therapy to treat bacterial infections gets vital assist from the mammalian immune system"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs poses a serious public health threat.\u0026nbsp; In response, scientists and clinicians are exploring alternative ways to cure bacterial infections that are untreatable by antibiotics. One approach is to use bacteria-killing viruses \u0026ndash; also known as bacteriophage, or phage.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Immune cells of the animal host act synergistically with phage to cure an otherwise fatal respiratory infection in mice."}],"uid":"30678","created_gmt":"2017-07-11 21:22:47","changed_gmt":"2017-07-18 14:07:06","author":"A. Maureen Rouhi","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-07-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2017-07-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"593556":{"id":"593556","type":"image","title":"Phage therapy eliminates acute infection in mice, as shown by bioluminescence assay of bacterial levels. (Courtesy Joshua Weitz and Laurent Debarbieux, Copyright 2017 Cell Press)","body":null,"created":"1500386618","gmt_created":"2017-07-18 14:03:38","changed":"1500386618","gmt_changed":"2017-07-18 14:03:38","alt":"","file":{"fid":"226268","name":"immuniphage.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/immuniphage.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/immuniphage.png","mime":"image\/png","size":283723,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/immuniphage.png?itok=KY9qh6KA"}},"590963":{"id":"590963","type":"image","title":"Joshua Weitz","body":null,"created":"1493217266","gmt_created":"2017-04-26 14:34:26","changed":"1493217266","gmt_changed":"2017-04-26 14:34:26","alt":"","file":{"fid":"225168","name":"Joshua Weitz.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Joshua%20Weitz.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Joshua%20Weitz.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":39265,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Joshua%20Weitz.jpg?itok=kansm_g2"}},"593450":{"id":"593450","type":"image","title":"Laurent Debarbieux","body":null,"created":"1499807576","gmt_created":"2017-07-11 21:12:56","changed":"1499807576","gmt_changed":"2017-07-11 21:12:56","alt":"","file":{"fid":"226220","name":"Laurent.Debarbieux-grand-2007.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Laurent.Debarbieux-grand-2007.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Laurent.Debarbieux-grand-2007.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":478925,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Laurent.Debarbieux-grand-2007.jpg?itok=JDW7AJmO"}},"593452":{"id":"593452","type":"image","title":"Dwayne Roach","body":null,"created":"1499807776","gmt_created":"2017-07-11 21:16:16","changed":"1499807776","gmt_changed":"2017-07-11 21:16:16","alt":"","file":{"fid":"226222","name":"Dwayne Roach.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Dwayne%20Roach.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Dwayne%20Roach.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":26765,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Dwayne%20Roach.jpg?itok=Rm9mY47e"}},"593451":{"id":"593451","type":"image","title":"Chung Yin (Joey) Leung","body":null,"created":"1499807716","gmt_created":"2017-07-11 21:15:16","changed":"1499807716","gmt_changed":"2017-07-11 21:15:16","alt":"","file":{"fid":"226221","name":"Chung Yin Leung.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Chung%20Yin%20Leung.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Chung%20Yin%20Leung.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":23359,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Chung%20Yin%20Leung.jpg?itok=F4za3TxZ"}}},"media_ids":["593556","590963","593450","593452","593451"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"174905","name":"immunophage synergy"},{"id":"174907","name":"phage therapy"},{"id":"11599","name":"Joshua Weitz"},{"id":"174910","name":"Chung Yin Leung"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA. Maureen Rouhi, Ph.D.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}