Bacteriophages and Acne?

[Nate3000]

While I can find a wealth of information on the theory of bacteriophages, I can't seem to find anything useful on their actual use(though I hear they're used with frequency in Georgia[the country]). Ever since I've known what they are, I've thought that bacteriophages would be perfect to treat acne. When I saw this article, I was slightly hopeful that I might find a clinical trial(at clinicaltrials.gov), but I found exactly bupkis.

So this leads me to my questions: Would it be a bad idea to culture the bacteriophage PA6? Is there somewhere I could purchase some of it?
If it's not a Bad Idea™, can you guys help me with the basics of culturing(I a vague idea of what to to)?

[canalon]

It might seem a good idea, but as far as i know the problems are:

-stability is not the greatest quality of bacteriophage cultures. In things like phage typing (strain discrimination of bacteria by sensitivity to a panel of phages), the hard part is to get consistent batches of phages.

-Sensitivity of bacteria to phages is not 100% so there might be some problems here. And unlike antibiotic here, there is no dose response.

-Phages are not really stable, so they are not as easy to use as anitibiotics that can be used in creams or pills.

As for protocol to grow phages, there are tons on the net, but the basics is you start a culture of your favorite target bacteria, and when it is starting to grow well, you mix it with phages and wait. In the end you hopefully have much less bacteria, but tons more of phages.

[Nate3000]

As for protocol to grow phages, there are tons on the net, but the basics is you start a culture of your favorite target bacteria, and when it is starting to grow well, you mix it with phages and wait. In the end you hopefully have much less bacteria, but tons more of phages.

Thanks!

Do you think you could direct me to protocols for culturing P. acnes? Or is there a place I could buy an already established culture? I hear P. acnes is hard to grow...
EDIT: Where does one get phages in the first place? Do you just try stuff from the environment(or from your face, because thats where P. acnes lives) and hope for the best?

[Nate3000]

I read this article, and found something concerning:

When phages burst out of the victim's cell, they leave behind debris that can contaminate the solution. This debris can prove fatal to humans, a problem that the purification technologies of the early days were unable to solve.

Those are endotoxins, right? And can you get rid of them with a centrifuge? (Or do you even need to? I know the body can handle them when bacteriophages work in the body.)

[canalon]

Can be bought at ATCC, although I doubt they would sell to anyone else than an institutional account, like any other company selling bacterial strains. The medium is simple and listed on their website:
http://www.atcc.org/Attachments/2333.pdf

As for fragments, it probably depends how they are used (topical vs ingestion) but I suspecta density gradient centrifugation might help separate the different fragments. But other methods might beb better/safer/more complete.
As for the detection of phage, I suspect you first start to test environmental samples on plates containing the targeted species and then make some plaque purification.

[biohazard]

I think you cannot remove endotoxins solely by centrifugation, at least in any practical way. However, some substances allow you to precipitate them and the remove by centrifugation. Even this doesn't guarantee 100% endotoxin-free product - something that even industrial high-purity systems cannot usually reach.

This being said, I've understood that low levels of endotoxins are problematic only if you're planning to inject your phages intravenously or maybe subcutaneously (which would just get them destroyed by the immune system anyway).

If you administrate the phages orally they likely get inactivated as well, but endotoxins shouldn't be a problem.

So, to me, some sort of cream or lotion sounds like the only practical way of administrating the phages. Endotoxins shouldn't be too big a problem this way, but the phage stability probably would, as well as their ability to reach the bacteria, not just the skin.

On a side note, that article about the phages was quite funny, the author managed to make the whole phage/bacteria thing like a horror story fused with science fiction

[Nate3000]

I think you cannot remove endotoxins solely by centrifugation, at least in any practical way. However, some substances allow you to precipitate them and the remove by centrifugation. Even this doesn't guarantee 100% endotoxin-free product - something that even industrial high-purity systems cannot usually reach.

This being said, I've understood that low levels of endotoxins are problematic only if you're planning to inject your phages intravenously or maybe subcutaneously (which would just get them destroyed by the immune system anyway).

If you administrate the phages orally they likely get inactivated as well, but endotoxins shouldn't be a problem.

So, to me, some sort of cream or lotion sounds like the only practical way of administrating the phages. Endotoxins shouldn't be too big a problem this way, but the phage stability probably would, as well as their ability to reach the bacteria, not just the skin.

On a side note, that article about the phages was quite funny, the author managed to make the whole phage/bacteria thing like a horror story fused with science fiction

Thanks. I was also wondering about any other impurities one would need to consider, though it sounds like endotoxins are not too much of a problem.

Lysis reminds me of the movie Alien.