Antibiotics are still the first line of treatment for infections in , but as these drugs are overused, many bacteria become resistant to them. Now, for the first time, an Israeli Persian cat has undergone personalized bacteriophage therapy that uses its genetic profile to guide decisions made for , diagnosis, and treatment. Bacteriophages (“phages” for short) are natural viruses that can selectively target and kill bacteria.
They are considered to have a high therapeutic potential for the treatment of severe bacterial infections, especially those that cannot be treated with antibiotics. The therapy is personalized because the specific phages used are tailored to the individual patient's infection, as determined through bacterial culture and . In 2010, the first report of a veterinary clinical trial of a phage-based infection treatment was published.
Ten dogs with chronic ear infections were treated with a cocktail of six phages active against the . The technique has also been used in cows, chickens, and other farm animals. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of general phage therapy in the food industry, largely in the dairy and meat industry, to combat bacterial growth.
But this was only a general—not personalized—treatment that did not involve tailoring the phage to the animals’ genetic profile, so it was not very successful. A new study led by Prof. Ronen Hazan and his team from the Faculty of Dental Medicine at the Hebrew University of.
