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Bacteriophages (or phages for short) are viruses that specializes in killing
bacteria. Phages have 20 faces and 30 edges or an icosahedral. They are the
deadliest entities alive on earth killing billions every year. They are also the
most abundant, with more phages than every other organism combined. They're
also very small, like 200nm small, for reference that’s 889 000 times smaller
than a banana. Bacteriophages need host cells to reproduce just like all other
viruses. There’s 2 types of Phages, the Virulent and the Temperate. The Virulent
phage only uses the Lytic Cycle while the Temperate uses both Lytic and
Lysogenic cycle.

Bacteriophages reproduce by using 1 of 2 methods, the lytic cycle involves

hijacking bacteria tricking them into producing Phages, until the pressure is so
much that the cell spontaneously combusts and dies releasing the phages. While
the Lysogenic cycle tricks the cell into becoming a part of the cell and copying
the Phages DNA into the cell. When the cell makes new cells, the DNA is
copied into new cells.

Sometimes bacteria evolve into superbugs, superbugs are strains of bacteria that
are immune to most kinds of antibiotics. One such bacteria is pseudomonas
aeruginosa, which is resistant to most or all antibiotics and can even survive
inside literal hand sanitizer. That’s where our phages come in, an old man that
had been fighting pseudomonas aeruginosa was near the end of his life until, as
a last ditch effort to save his life, 2000 Bacteriophages were injected into his
chest cavity. After only a few days, he recovered completely and was discharged
from the hospital.

However, Phage Therapy does have some issues, Pharmacutical companies are
reluctant to invest billions of necessary dollars to advance research as none of
these trials have gotten FDA approval. The main issue is that the Phages using
the Lytic Cycle sometimes just changes into Lysogenic Cycle, we have no idea
why it does this, however bacteria that were targeted with the Lysogenic Cycle
may get immune to Phage Therapy aswell. Scientists have found ways to
genetically modify the Phages to not use the Lysogenic Cycle, but even then,
Phage resistant bacteria will still generate.

Bacteriophages and Phage Therapy may be an invaluable tool for a cure to

Superbugs, however right now, a lack of investment and governmental funding
will slow down research drastically. Even if we have funding, there’s no
guarantee that it will work, and one wrong move and we may will have created
another bioweapon.

Chegini, Z., Khoshbayan, A., Taati Moghadam, M. et al. Bacteriophage therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms: a review. Ann Clin
Microbiol Antimicrob 19, 45 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12941-020-00389-5
Kasman, L. M. (n.d.). Bacteriophages - statpearls - NCBI bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493185/

Painuli, S., Semwal, P., Sharma, R., & Akash, S. (2023). Superbugs or multidrug resistant microbes: A new threat to the society. Health science
reports, 6(8), e1480. https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1480

Clokie, M. R., Millard, A. D., Letarov, A. V., & Heaphy, S. (2011). Phages in nature. Bacteriophage, 1(1), 31–45.
https://doi.org/10.4161/bact.1.1.14942