title: Phage therapy: the peculiar kinetics of self-replicating pharmaceuticals.
abstract: The specter of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has provoked renewed interest in the possible use of bacteriophages to control bacterial infections. We argue that clinical application of phage therapy has been held back by a failure to appreciate the extent to which the pharmacokinetics of self-replicating agents differ from those of normal drugs. For self-replicating pharmaceutical agents, treatment outcome depends critically on various density-dependent thresholds, often with apparently paradoxical consequences. An ability to predict these thresholds and associated critical time points is a necessity if phage therapy is to become clinically practicable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology and The Wellcome Trust Centre for Epidemiologyy of Infectious Diseases, University of Oxford, UK. r.j.h.payne@rdg.ac.uk
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Phil
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000628:therapy*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D014779:Virus Replication