Biotechnological challenges of phage therapy

• Published in: Biotechnology letters Vol. 29; no. 7; pp. 995 - 1003
• Main Authors: Skurnik, Mikael, Pajunen, Maria, Kiljunen, Saija
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Kluwer Academic Publishers 01.07.2007; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bacteriology; Bacteriophage; Bacteriophages - genetics; Bacteriophages - metabolism; Bacteriophages - pathogenicity; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Biotechnology - economics; Biotechnology - methods; Biotechnology - standards; Biotechnology - trends; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genes; Genome, Viral - genetics; Intellectual property; Phages; Property rights; Sequence; Sequence Analysis, DNA; therapeutics; Toxin; Toxins, Biological; virulence; Virulence Factors; Virus; Biotechnology; Therapy; Toxin; Gene; Virulence; Sequence; Bacteriophage; Gene· Toxin· Virulence factor; Phage
• ISSN: 0141-5492; 1573-6776
• DOI: 10.1007/s10529-007-9346-1

The challenges for successful launching of a profitable phage therapeutic product include intellectual property rights, safety issues, reproducibility, stability and robustness of the product. A successful and marketable product would be a highly purified bacteriophage preparation containing one or several fully characterized phages, accompanied by optimized methods of administration and backed up by properly controlled efficacy and safety studies.