Talk:Bacteriophage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Viruses WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve and organize articles about biological viruses on Wikipedia. Please work to improve this article, or visit our project page to find other ways of helping. Thanks!
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the assessment scale.
Top	This article is has been assigned a Top-importance to the Viruses WikiProject.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

	MCB Portal This article is within the scope of the Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject. To participate, visit the WikiProject for more information. The WikiProject's current monthly collaboration is focused on improving Restriction enzyme.
B	This article has been rated as b-Class on the assessment scale.
High	This article is on a subject of high-importance within molecular and cellular biology.
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

Is there any word about the possible dangers of a) phage therapy and b) using the things with food? Is it possible that a bacteriophage would infect a human cell? _sd

- Bacteriophage is highly specialized to attack bacterial cell and they can't attach or attack human cell. There is a small danger that the phage code for a virulence factor and can increase the virulence of a bacteria. For exemple, the pathogenicity of some strains of Vibro cholerae (cholera)can be explain by the presence of prophage in their genome. This kind of phenomenon is possible only with temperate phages. But, there are some rules for the phages used in the food or therapy. These phages are extensively studied to verify the possible presence of these kind of virulence factor and some of the interesting phage are lytic (these phages don't have the possibility to integrate their DNA, then we avoid the lysogenic state). H. Deveau (August 26, 2006)

There are dangers, but they would be indirect. One danger of phage therapy is that it might be used instead of more appropriate and effective treatments. Another, relevant to the use of any chemical or virus or genetic engineering, is that the organisms may develop resstance. It is trivially easy in the laboratory to select bacteria that are rsistant to any given bacteriophage, and as H.Devoe mentions, the biology of such resistance is well-studied. The use on food would have similar problems. It is better to process meat so it does not contain Listeria than to treat the contamination. DGG 22:30, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Movement 2 Link to 'Vidiian' 3 Prophage 4 Patent law and corporate motivation 5 Phage Therapy 6 Quantity 7 Cite needed 8 External links

[edit] Movement

This sentance tells us that phages do not move of theirown accord; - As phage virions do not move, they must rely on random encounters with the right receptors when in solution (blood and lymphatic circulation)., however this sentence seems contradictory; - When an effective phage has been found it will seek out the bacteria and continue to kill bacteria of that type until they are all gone.

Can somebody please correct this? Parasite 08:05, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

a possible citation - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/19/48hours/main522596.shtml

[edit] Link to 'Vidiian'

The link doesn't really have anything to do with bacteriophages, other than that those aliens suffer from a disease called "the phage". I've removed the link. CatBoris 14:16, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prophage

Does anyone feel the prophage article warrants existence? It's very small and could easily be redirected here. Since this is the only 'parent' topic it relates to, I see no reason to have a separate article unless there is so much content on the subject that it can't be adequately covered here. Richard001 04:32, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Patent law and corporate motivation

I've removed the sentence that stated as a blunt fact that patent difficulty surrounding phages is the reason mainstream pharma companies are 'reluctant' to pursue the developments of phage therapies. The single quote supporting this assertion is from a doctor working at a company developing phage therapy -- hardly an unbiased source, and irrelevant to the scope of the article as a whole. palecur 06:26, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Further minor edit: Removed verbage about how phages are more 'accurate' and 'potent' than drug therapy, since there was no source offered beyond the bare assertion. Likewise the statements about side effects. palecur 02:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Question? What is going on with the development of bacteriophages for use in the USA for medical purposes? What is preventing this technology from being developed and brought to market? Is the technology not actually viable? Or are there other factors? ReasonableLogicalMan 13:20, 4 November 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reasonablelogicalman (talk • contribs)

[edit] Phage Therapy

Seems like the last paragraph of "Phage Therapy" is an unscrupulous plug for a Georgian medical practice. Given that Georgia is not generally considered to be part of Europe, the statement that it is suggests someone might be trying to legitimatize this medical practice. The phrase "low cost" and the uncredited anecdote of healed westerners only makes the paragraph less believable and more like an advertisement. This paragraph might need to be removed, or significantly altered. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.227.231.227 (talk) 18:36, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, I boldly removed it, along with the associated external links. I left a small summary of the specific article, which is all that is possibly warranted here--and it still needs some NPOV sourcing. The problem of the accuracy and POV of the Phage therapy article remains to be addressed. As it was, anyone coming here wouldn't have realised that bacteriophage actually was a subject of scientific study, given the predominance of fringe material. DGG (talk) 22:44, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quantity

Insertformulahere "Talk of the Nation"/"Science Friday"/"Using "Phage" Viruses to Help Fight Infection" / April 4, 2008: There are estimated to be 10^32 of them. Kdammers (talk) 03:11, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cite needed

I've removed the following as unreferenced:

"They are also found in drinking water and in some foods, including fermented vegetables and meats e.g. pickles, salami, where they serve the function of controlling any growth of bacteria."

Can someone find a cite for this, please, before restoring it to the article? -- The Anome (talk) 07:29, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] External links

I removed some links to individual research centers, companies, and similar. See WP:EL. Before re-adding, explain here. 02:00, 12 April 2008 (UTC)