Combating Antibiotic Resistance: Viruses to the Rescue

Researchers Develop a New Method to Counter Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

Researchers have developed a new method to target and kill specific bacteria using viruses, an advance that may help overcome the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.

The results of the study, published in the journal Cell, showed that bacteria-infecting viruses called bacteriophages, or simply phages, could kill different strains of the bacterium E. coli by making mutations in a viral protein that bound to host cells.

The researchers, including those from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, collaborating with the US Army, showed that the phages they tweaked in the lab were less likely to provoke resistance in bacteria.