1. PHAGE THERAPY HAS GREAT POTENTIAL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST
ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT INFECTIONS
Grace Filby (Churchill Fellow of 2007)
Project Title: The Health Value of Bacteriophages
Countries visited: Georgia, Poland, USA and Canada
grace.filby@ntlworld.com 01737 217013
Phages are natural waterborne viruses that specifically attack and destroy
bacteria. Discovered exactly 100 years ago in London, their existence is still
relatively unknown to the public in the UK. Whilst antibiotic therapy was
celebrated and then over-relied on for fighting bacterial infections, medical
expertise in phage therapy developed in the former Soviet Union and Poland. Just
this century global awareness of phage therapy has become possible via the
internet and international collaboration. Coinciding with my Churchill Fellowship in
2007, the first controlled phage clinical trials began in the UK, USA, Bangladesh and
now collaboratively across Europe, to validate the efficacy, clinical safety and range
of application of phage therapies.
I was interviewed for radio, newspaper and TV, and gave talks to Rotary, Probus
and U3A groups. Online, I kept an ‘Amazing Phage’ blog and made educational
YouTube videos. I became a ‘signpost’ and ambassador for phage therapy,
including communicating with UK central government. In 2009 I was a co-author
with the Polish phage team on a scientific mini-review: 'Bacteriophage therapy for
the treatment of infections' Gorski et al.
[www.europepmc.org/abstract/med/19649921]
Following up the British co-discovery of phage by Professor F W Twort, FRS, I
invited his son, Dr Antony Twort, biographer, ‘In Focus, Out of Step’ (Sutton, 1993)
to tea. The Lancet had published F W Twort’s original paper in December 1915.
Around Antony’s ninetieth birthday, BBC Horizon broadcast ‘Defeating the
Superbugs’ in September
2012, so again Antony visited
my home so that I could
introduce him to a phage
scientist who was a
contributor to the TV
programme.
Thanks to a Churchill family introduction, I contributed to a history book, 'Women in
War' (Pen and Sword 2012). ‘Women who Thawed the Cold War’ is my chapter
featuring phage therapy east of the ‘Iron Curtain’. I speculate that Winston Churchill,
fascinated by new innovations, would have been delighted by the prospect of phage
therapy for fighting bacterial infections, on the battlefield and at home. Tragically,
his daughter Marigold, “Duckadilly”, died, aged two and a half, from a bacterial
infection in 1921.
A copy of ‘Women in War’ is in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle on the
instructions of Her Majesty the Queen. Also the Prime Minister’s Review on
Antimicrobial Resistance invited me to share some research on phage therapy.
2007, Georgia: Grace (centre) confirms that
phage therapy is routine in hospitals and
clinics for treating and preventing bacterial
infections
2007, Poland: At the EU’s only phage therapy
unit, Grace observes phage action in the lab
and with hospital patients’ wounds, getting
rid of ‘MRSA’ superbug infections
2015: Grace brings good news of phage
therapy to Buckingham Palace
Phage therapy: “A public–private–academic thrust is badly
needed, and chronically infected diabetic foot infections are
an ideal target for such cooperation”:
Professor Elizabeth Kutter, USA
30.1.2015 – Churchill’s 50th
anniversary day
Antimicrobial resistance poses a “catastrophic threat”:
Professor Dame Sally Davies,
England’s Chief Medical Officer, 2014
2015: In Hollywood, colleagues announce
compassionate use of phage therapy
products for diabetic foot infections