Bacteriophages

I was listening to the April 4th Science Friday Episode about Bacteriophages http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200804043.

These are viruses that kill a specific strain of bacteria. Work was done back in the early 1900's in Eastern Europe to cultivate them as a cure for certain diseases. This work was mostly forgotten over the years - particularly since the rise of antibiotics during WWII.

Since the antibiotic age seems to have come full circle, with many persistent strains of bacteria developing in response to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, interested individuals are looking again at this technology.

If a strain of bacteriophage can be found that exactly works on a resistant strain of bacteria, this would be a great discovery. The phages are said to be completely safe in humans - as they will only attack the specific infectious agent and not the body. The trick is finding the right strain. Companies are starting to submit phages for approval to the FDA, and some have gotten GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status.

The question I have is how do they propagate the phage once they find it? The guest on Science Friday talked about delivering it in pill, spray, or patch form, and warned that exposure to light would kill the phages. Is it hard to keep a strain alive and grow a commercially useful amount? How does it kill the bacteria? Once a person is infected with a phage, does it stay after it has killed all the bacteria it targets? Does your immune system possibly learn from the action of the phage and have some immunity to the bacteria after the phage treatment is over?

I wrote an entry on June 11, 2007 http://atresfreq.blogspot.com/2007/06/civil-war-immunity.html about my speculation that the Civil War soldiers were infected with so many strains of various bacteria in their disease-ridden camps that they had some kind of immunity that lasted the rest of their lives. The soldiers that survived the war lived in great numbers into their 90's. While it is also true that marching the long distances and all the physical exertions put them in incredible shape, that can't be all there was to it. It stands to reason that nasty diseases with high mortality rates would also be the perfect breeding ground for viruses that lived on those bacteria. So maybe exposure to those filthy camps also brought the antidote for the diseases in the form of phages that could develop and get a foothold in an environment rich with bacteria. Like any good mystery, you just have to keep turning the pages until the answers reveal themselves.

Civil War Immunity

The human body as 10 trillion cells in it. We carry around 100 trillion non-human cells, microbes, mostly bacteria. They work for us, helping us with digestion mostly.

There is also an effect where our colonies of friendly bacteria help protect us against harmful infections. Their own defenses help fight off new invaders. We've known for a while that antibiotics have a defense stripping side effect. You've probably heard about eating yogurt (a bacterial culture) in order to help your intestinal cultures.

There is an interesting discussion on the Scientific American podcast from May 2, 2007. The guest was David Relman of Stanford who is studying the subject. He talks about how babies pick up their microbiota in the first weeks and months of life. Each person has their own unique bacteriological content.

Here's the theory I came up with from listening to this information. I believe that Civil War soldiers that survived the war carried a unique superbiota that imbued them with super immune systems.

I've always wondered why so many of the Civil War veterans lived so long. So many of them survived into their 90s in a time when the average life expectancy was around 55. I assumed that the constant marching and hard physical exertions put them into a superb physical shape that carried them on through later life. That may have something to do with it. You could also argue that the war would have weeded out the mentally and physically weak people, an accelerated survival of the fittest.

Most people that died in the Civil War died of disease, not injury. Camp conditions were atrocious. Sanitation was usually non existent, and when it was employed and enforced, as when General Hooker took over the Union forces, it was noted for it's extreme contrast to usual conditions.

Civil War soldiers were in intimate contact with each other. They probably ate out of the same containers, often using their fingers. They often slept tightly packed together for warmth (it was called "spooning"). It is reasonable to assume that much of their microbiota was passed around and shared.

It stands to reason that survivors of the various diseases that swept through the camps would have an immunity of some kind. It also stands to reason that humans with the right mix of internal bacterial stew that happened to confer protection for the various diseases would naturally develop.

The war was a massive mix of humanity under extreme conditions and accelerated development. My theory is unprovable, there would be no surviving cultures, no way to get them. Perhaps a study of medical records of veterans that survived to old age would yield some points of commonality, but the records are spotty, and they are nowhere near complete. So it simply remains an intriguing possibility.

Of course, massive movements of people are also a formula for rapid spread of a microorganism with devastating effect. Many speculate that the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 was spread worldwide so quickly from the returning soldiers from WWI. But that is another subject.