- During 2019, resistance to antibiotics was directly responsible for 1.2 million deaths in the world.
- If the trend continues by 2050, it would be the leading cause of death on the entire planet.
- In July 2022, the first treatment was achieved that eliminates the common acne bacteria and is free of antibiotics and synthetic preservatives that damage the skin and the body.
One of the major global problems today is the abuse of antibiotics. It is so serious that it has caused pathogens to become increasingly resistant to current drugs. In fact, by 2050 it could be the leading cause of death on the planet. Therefore, among the alternatives that have been proposed to avoid this catastrophic scenario is the phagotherapy.
What is?
This option consists of use the natural enemies of bacteria to treat infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria. In this way, health problems that have not improved despite the prolonged use of antibiotics can be solved.
With this principle, Mexican scientists are working on a innovative treatment against acne and other dermatological conditions. They plan to take advantage of biodiversity and biotechnology to develop products based on phagotherapy. This would mean a great advance in scientific innovation since it has no adverse or secondary effects on the body.
Dr. Alberto Checa, General Director and researcher at Accuderm and Dr. Andrés Andrade, Director of Research and Development, warned the sustained increase in cases of common acne among the population in recent years. While the most serious thing is that antibiotic-based drugs are no longer the effective and safe alternative. They also often cause serious side effects because they damage the liver, kidneys and digestive tract if used for long periods of time.
A new dermatological alternative
After years of studies and months of improvement of the bacteriophage formulation under rigorous quality controls, in July 2022 it was possible to successfully obtain the The first treatment that eliminates common acne bacteria and is free of antibiotics and synthetic preservatives that damage the skin and body. It stands out because it is also composed of 100% natural bioactive proteins.
Dr. Andrés Andrade, who is a Doctor in Biomedical Sciences from UNAM, and a postdoctoral fellow in Harvard Medical School He is an expert in phage therapy, gene editing, microbial ecology and evolutionary biology, he details that this phage therapy has been evaluated in people and not in animals. It is based on the application of viruses (bacteriophages) that exclusively infect the cutibacterium acnes bacteria, which infects and damages the skin, so that it naturally reaches the balance of the microbiome.
“The active ingredient, bacteriophages, help to restore, reduce inflammation and regenerate the skin, making synergy with its protein agents. Our treatment has been evaluated and tested by dermatologists and its results are visible from the first week. It consists of three steps: a gentle exfoliation, a phagotherapy and a biorestorative solution”.
For his part, Dr. Alberto Checa, PhD in Biomedical Sciences from UNAM, an expert in molecular biology and functional genomics of cancer, states that “we join the world trend in scientific research and application of bacteriophages as a therapeutic alternative, demonstrating the efficacy of these natural elements to fight, without antibiotics, multiresistant skin infections”.
Regarding the prolonged use of antibiotics, the young scientists cited research published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, which states that Antibiotic resistance was directly responsible for 1.2 million deaths in 2019 and would be related to an additional 4.5 million deaths.
This study confirms that resistance to antibiotics is one of the main causes of death on the planet, above HIV and malaria with 860,000 and 640,000 deaths, respectively, in 2019.
Antibiotic resistance in C. acnes it can spread to other commensal bacteria that colonize the skin and pilosebaceous follicles, such as Streptococcus and Staphylococcus, through horizontal gene transfer. Therefore, the administration of antibiotics would not only lead to the emergence of resistant strains, but also to the spread of resistance to other pathogenic bacterial species.
Derived from the above, it is urgent that patients with problems of multi-resistant bacterial skin infections complement their treatment based on bacteriophages to recover the balance and health of the largest organ of the human body in the shortest possible time. In this way, damage to the body can be minimized and contribute to the reduction of the serious public health problem that is multi-resistance to antibiotics.
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