Back to the future: bacteriophages as promising therapeutic tools

Bacteriophages (phages), natural predators of bacteria, are becoming increasingly attractive in medical and pharmaceutical applications. After their discovery almost a century ago, they have been particularly instrumental in the comprehension of basic molecular biology and genetics processes. The more recent emergence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria requires novel therapeutic strategies, and phages are being (re)considered as promising potential antibacterial tools. Furthermore, phages are also used for other purposes, e.g. vaccine production, gene/drug carriers, bacterial detection and typing. These new alternative approaches using phages are of major interest and have allowed unexpected developments, from the decipherment of fundamental biological processes to potential clinical applications.