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Viral cocktail: new in the treatment of cholera
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Scientists have successfully tested a drink containing three viruses on animals sick with cholera. Details of the experiment can be found in the scientific publication Nature Communication.
Phage therapy has been known for several years and is considered a very promising direction. The latest research by scientists was aimed at studying the ability of bacteriophage viruses to prevent and stop the spread of intestinal infectious pathologies.
The project's organizer, Professor Andrew Camilli, representing the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, believes that bacteriophages could one day stop the pandemic spread of cholera: this disease affects almost 4 million people every year, mainly in underdeveloped countries. Cholera causes severe dehydration in the patient, which can quickly lead to death.
Scientists had already been studying this problem a little earlier. Their goal was to find bacteriophages that could selectively attack the cholera vibrio. As it was discovered, in the natural environment the cholera pathogen has a huge number of natural enemies.
Scientists isolated viruses that had the ability to kill the cholera vibrio in the human intestinal cavity. Three varieties of the virus enveloped the surface receptors of the microbial structure, entered the pathogen and damaged the cell from the inside.
During the experiment, the specialists gave the rodents different volumes of a cocktail containing the necessary viruses, several hours after the animals were given a standard dose of the cholera vibrio. As a result, the cocktail prevented the development of the disease in more than 50% of the rodents, provided that the drink was consumed within the first three hours after infection.
If the drink was taken a day after infection, the microbial load decreased by about 500 times, compared to the control group. It was found that the maximum effectiveness of the cocktail was manifested during the initial 12 hours after infection.
In addition, it was noted that rodents that had suffered from cholera did not show signs of critical dehydration while taking bacteriophages: the disease was relatively mild, compared to those who did not undergo such treatment.
Next, the scientists tested the cholera pathogen for resistance to the viral cocktail. The tests showed that in some cases the vibrio lost sensitivity to one or two viruses, but loss of sensitivity to three viruses was not observed in any of the cases. Interestingly, those microbes that developed resistance to viruses lost the ability to cause cholera, meaning they became harmless.
"We have spent almost ten years to identify and isolate the viruses we need, and to be able to use them in clinical practice. We are confident that we have obtained a real medicine that will defeat cholera and help all people on the planet," Professor Camilli concluded.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.