Bacteriophage in Experimental Staphylococcal Septicemia

Abstract

The principles of phage therapy have been developed upon 2 cardinal assumptions: 1. That an active homologous bacteriophage introduced into a host harboring a pathogenic organism in the tissues will propagate at the expense of the disease incitant, eventually causing the latter's widespread lytic destruction and constituting as a consequence a benign therapia sterilisans with no danger of untoward response on the host's part such as might attend use of germicidal drugs. 2. That phage lysates contain in solution certain constituents of bacterial cells released at the time of lysis. These substances are capable of inducing antibody responses upon contact with animal tissues and may be expected effectively to produce an active immunity. With a few notable exceptions, studies on phage therapy in experimental infections have been directed largely toward evaluation of phage as a possible therapeutic modality, as is, of course, also the case with purely clinical observations. However, the primary action anticipated in the application of phage to the treatment of diseases, i. e., massive bacterial dissolution in vivo has not been subjected to any critical experimental analysis so far as the authors are aware. Since any accepted concept of phage action will have definite influence upon the manner in which phage is applied clinically and also upon the nature and extent of our clinical expectations, a series of experiments was undertaken to investigate whether conditions essential for bacterial lysis can develop in animal tissues and if so just how much lytic destruction of susceptible organisms is produced. Previous work by Krueger and Northrop 1 , 2 , 3 on the reaction occurring between a staphylococcus and antistaphylococcus phage showed that under controlled.