PACT (Photodynamic Anti-microbial Chemotherapy) using sensitizers has many documented peer-reviewed studies showing 'broad-spectrum' anti-bacterial effectiveness. This includes most gram-positive bacteria and many gram-negative bacteria.
Many classes of legacy antibiotics are also broad-spectrum but increasingly many bacteria are becoming 'resistant' and either increasing concentrations and dosages are required or they simply don't work the way they used to.
PACT antimicrobial therapy, however, does not lead to 'resistance' and the treatment may be repeated with ongoing positive benefits. The main hindrance to the uptake of this technology is the historic lack of penetration of the activating light and non-availability (non-approval) of sensitizers which can be activated by more deeply penetrating light.
SPDT (Sono Photodynamic Chemotherapy), which uses ultrasound for energy activation of the bacteriocidal effect, overcomes this limitation and will likely lead to dramatic advances in the successful treatment of many problematic 'resistant' bacteria such as the MRSA bacteria (Methicillin-resistant staph aureus), the so-called 'flesh-eating bacteria".
Background
Tuberculosis is another 'problem' bacteria which is demonstrating 'multiple or total drug resistance' with alarming potential consequences
One-quarter of the world's population is thought to be infected with TB with new infections occurring in about 1% of the population each year. In 2017, there were more than 10 million cases of active TB which resulted in 1.6 million deaths. This makes it the number one cause of death from an infectious disease. Tuberculosis has been present in humans since ancient times.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared TB a "global health emergency" in 1993 but most of their goals were not achieved by 2015, mostly due to the increase in HIV-associated tuberculosis and the emergence of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis. Treatment requires the use of multiple antibiotics over a long period of time. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem with increasing rates of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Hopes of totally controlling the disease (with traditional therapies) have been dramatically dampened because of a number of factors, including the difficulty of developing an effective vaccine, the expensive and time-consuming diagnostic process, the necessity of many months of treatment, the increase in HIV-associated tuberculosis, and the emergence of drug-resistant cases in the 1980s. PACT, as will be explained below may offer a breakthrough not only in the treatment of TB, including drug-resistant strains but also possibly in treating and perhaps eliminating the 'latent' form of TB in the roughly 1.2 Billion people in the world who have this dormant infection.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections do not have symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. About 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those affected. The classic symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. It was historically called "consumption" due to weight loss.
Tuberculosis is spread through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze. People with latent TB do not spread the disease. Active infection occurs more often in people with HIV/AIDS and in those who smoke.
Recent peer-reviewed studies show the effectiveness of PACT for treating drug-resistant TB and with the SPDT deep activation sensitizers, the possibility of treating latent TB is also a possibility that never existed before.
The following abstract of a recent article is revealing
Photoantimicrobials-are We Afraid of the Light?Review
Lancet Infect Disease
, 17 (2), e49-e55
Feb 2017Photoantimicrobials-are We Afraid of the Light?
Mark Wainwright 1, Tim Maisch 2, Santi Nonell 3, Kristjan Plaetzer 4, Adelaide Almeida 5, George P Tegos 6, Michael R Hamblin 7
Affiliations expand
PMID: 27884621
PMCID: PMC5280084
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30268-7
Abstract
Although conventional antimicrobial drugs have been viewed as miraculous cure-alls for the past 80 years, increasing antimicrobial drug resistance requires a major and rapid intervention. However, the development of novel but still conventional systemic antimicrobial agents, having only a single-mode or site of action, will not alleviate the situation because it is probably only a matter of time until any such agents will also become ineffective. To continue to produce new agents based on this notion is unacceptable, and there is an increasing need for alternative approaches to the problem. By contrast, light-activated molecules called photoantimicrobials act locally via the in-situ production of highly reactive oxygen species, which simultaneously attack various biomolecular sites in the pathogenic target and therefore offer both multiple and variable sites of action. This non-specificity at the target circumvents conventional mechanisms of resistance and inhibits the development of resistance to the agents themselves. Photoantimicrobial therapy is safe and easy to implement and, unlike conventional agents, the activity spectrum of photoantimicrobials covers bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa. However, clinical trials of these new, truly broad-spectrum, and minimally toxic agents have been few, and the funding for research and development is almost non-existent. Photoantimicrobials constitute one of the few ways forward through the morass of drug-resistant infectious disease and should be fully explored. In this Personal View, we raise awareness of the novel photoantimicrobial technologies that offer a viable alternative to conventional drugs in many relevant application fields, and could thus slow the pace of resistance development.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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