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Professor Jon Iredell聽from the聽Faculty of Medicine and Health聽and his team at聽, are harnessing the natural virus predators of bacteria, called bacteriophages or phages that are found everywhere in nature. In fact, they are the most abundant and diverse life form on Earth.聽

By the year 2050, antimicrobial resistance is predicted to聽聽of death globally,聽聽per year and exceeding deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease.聽

聽has warned that the failure of antibiotics due to antimicrobial resistance could lead to an end to modern medicine as common infections become untreatable and surgical procedures carry an increased risk of infection, sepsis and mortality.聽

According to聽Professor Iredell, the Asia-Pacific region will be particularly impacted by antimicrobial resistance with the estimated annual impact on the global economy by 2050 expected to be between $100 and $120 billion.

Phage therapy聽聽and continues to be a popular treatment option for bacterial infection in聽but it fell from favour in the West after the discovery of antibiotics.聽

鈥淧hages attack and聽effectively fight and destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria, making them a suitable alternative to antibiotics for treating bacterial infections,鈥� said Professor Iredell.

鈥淲ith careful preparation to remove impurities, phages are harmless to humans, easy to produce and completely effective against antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains 鈥� offering a last defence against otherwise untreatable infections.鈥澛�

颁耻谤谤别苍迟濒测,听聽can only provide phage therapy in compassionate cases. Following聽聽on severe sepsis at Westmead Hospital, infection specialist at the Children鈥檚 Hospital, Westmead and Deputy Director of Phage Australia,聽Dr Ameneh Khatami, said she聽聽successfully treat a life-threatening lung infection and聽聽facing amputation as a result of an ongoing antimicrobial-resistant infection.

The team now wants to make the therapy widely available across the Australian health system by establishing it in the Australian (and international) pharmacopeia through a national industry ecosystem of genomics and informatics, diagnostics, clinical trials, manufacturing and international biobanks.聽

The researchers have already assembled a leadership team, begun production of phages, enrolled their first patients in clinical trials and are developing infrastructure for implementation and analysis.

Over the next five years, they aim to deliver precision phage therapy to Australians and define its role for prescribers and patients across the Asia Pacific region. They will also work with regulators to find a place for phage therapy in the national pharmacopoeia 鈥� established standards for pharmaceutical substances and medicinal products which assist in the quality control of medicines in Australia.聽At this stage, therapy is not TGA approved.

One of the big advantages of phage therapy is its ability to precisely target strains of bacteria. Unlike antibiotics, each phage is highly precise in the specific bacteria it targets. This means that, unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics, phage treatment does not impact the healthy bacteria in the human body, making it a suitable third approach to infectious disease control (after immunisation and antibiotics).聽聽

According to Deputy Director of Phage Australia,聽聽this specificity is what makes phage therapy so important for the future of public health.聽

鈥淧hage can be a powerful treatment weapon for clinicians because it is so targeted. You can specify how much load you want to release into the site of infection, dictating exactly how many milligrams, or nanograms of drugs you want to deliver,鈥� she said.

Associate Professor Lin believes that the development of phage therapy also has the potential to prepare the Australian health system for future outbreaks of infectious disease.

鈥淲hen COVID-19 happened, we weren鈥檛 ready to deal with infectious diseases. Medical countermeasure is very important, and phage therapy is part of that overall picture of surveillance and preparedness for a pandemic and antimicrobial resistance,鈥� she said.

鈥淲e still need antibiotics, but phage therapy can offer another solution. Ideally, we would like to add phage therapy to the Australian pharmacopeia. There is a global movement toward phage therapy as it is the only way to deal with antimicrobial resistance.鈥�

Professor Iredell and his team at Sydney are researching genomic technologies that will help evolve phage into a better weapon to fight infection.

鈥淲e pioneered phage therapy for humans in Australia in 2007 and are still the only site in Australia who have treated adults and children with phage therapy,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he momentum we have created is very strong, but we cannot maintain our leadership position without funding support, this is very urgent now.鈥�

Professor Iredell is hoping that Phage Australia will receive the funding needed to deliver the Southern Hemisphere鈥檚 first sustainable source of phage therapy.