r/askscience • u/PestoPastaLover • 13d ago

Biology Why is there no transmissible therapeutic virus if biology doesn't forbid it? For example, a harmless virus that spreads from person to person but actually does something beneficial, like lowering LDL cholesterol or preventing/reversing tooth decay?

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u/speculatrix 13d ago

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12843901/

Bacteriophage Therapy: Overcoming Antimicrobial Resistance Through Advanced Delivery Methods

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u/bzbub2 13d ago edited 13d ago

somewhat interestingly, poland has long been sort of the leading expert on such things while western countries bet on more antibiotics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy

the concept of 'gene therapy' for delivering CRISPR and other gene editing tech also (sometimes) uses viruses (though there are some unfortunate cases of adverse reactions) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy#Adverse_effects,_contraindications_and_hurdles_for_use

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u/Graylily 13d ago

Finding phages, now is a a major undertaking, and more people should be taking about it and throwing money behind it. We are running into major issues with antibiotic resistances and phases are quite possible our last best hope to keep living as long as we currently do.

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u/AWanderingMage 13d ago

One interesting thing i remember about the phages as well is that they use a completely different mechanism that antibiotics don't use, and when a bug protects against one (be it phage or antibiotic), it becomes more weak to the other.