Latest news with #Anantharaman
India Today
13-06-2025
- Health
- India Today
How viruses can help the fight against antibiotic resistance
Phage therapies are currently used only in compassionate cases, where all antibiotics have failed and the patient's condition is critical. () Phage therapy uses viruses that specifically infect bacteria India currently relies mostly on antibiotics for infections AI helps identify and analyse over 1.3 million viral genomes Antimicrobial resistance isn't just a silent pandemic â€' India bears one of the heaviest burdens globally. While the country continues its search for new antibiotics to combat the crisis, researchers are now turning to naturally-occurring viruses in the environment as a promising tool to attack and kill multi-drug-resistant bacteria. Karthik Anantharaman, a visiting professor at Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, is spearheading such a project in the US by studying the nature of viruses in their natural habitat to attack and kill bacteria, a process called phage therapy. "One approach is to create more antibiotics but this only postpones the problem. New antibiotics also can lead to new forms of resistance, creating a never-ending cycle. An alternative and promising solution is phage therapy, which uses viruses called bacteriophages (or simply phages) to kill specific bacteria," Dr. Anantharaman, who is also a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told FINDING VIRUSES THAT KILL BACTERIA Anantharaman and his team discovered that viruses have yearly cycles and can affect other organisms in the ecosystem. As part of their study, some viruses were found to carry genes they had taken from the organisms they infected, which helped them carry out important biological functions. The research team also put together over 1.3 million viral genomes â€' the largest collection of its kind so far. Lake Mendota in the US has been monitored consistently since the late 1800s (Photo: Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin–Madison) "In our lab, we are exploring how phages behave over time. We conducted a 20-year study of a single lake, using DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) to track how phage populations changed. By sequencing environmental DNA and using AI tools, we identified over 1.3 million viral genomes. This allowed us to see how viruses shift month to month, season to season, and year to year, and to predict their future behaviour," Dr. Anantharaman said. While phage therapy might seem like a relatively new concept to Indian populations and even the West who rely heavily on antibiotics, Anantharaman mentioned that the phenomenon of using viruses to kill bacteria has been used in countries like Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia for decades. VIRUSES AS ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANER "Our goal is twofold: to improve human health and environmental health. Just as phages (virus) can target harmful bacteria in the human body, they can also be used to clean polluted ecosystems," University of Wisconsin-Madison professor said. For example, if a lake turns black or emits a smell like rotten eggs, a sign of hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria, phages can be used to selectively kill those bacteria and restore the lake's health. Anantharaman lab group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, pictured by Lake Mendota. Despite their promise, phage therapies are currently used only in compassionate cases, where all antibiotics have failed and the patient's condition is critical. HOW DO PHAGES OR VIRUSES WORK AGAINST BACTERIA? One major reason phages haven't entered mainstream treatment is that researchers still don't fully understand how they evolve over time. Consequently, there are no approved phage-based therapeutic products in India, the US, or Europe. But phages hold great promise, especially when used in combination with antibiotics. Here's how it works: when bacteria face antibiotics, they come under stress. Sometimes, this stress causes genetic changes that make them resistant. But in that process, bacteria may also become vulnerable to phages. So, using both antibiotics and phages together creates a powerful, complementary treatment strategy. In some cases, antibiotics work where phages don't and vice versa. Anantharaman lab member Patricia Tran sampling Lake Mendota, US. over frozen ice in the Winter. "One major advantage of phages is their precision. Unlike antibiotics, which kill both harmful and beneficial bacteria, phages target only one specific strain. If a person is infected with Pseudomonas, the phage used will kill only Pseudomonas, sparing the rest of the body's microbiome. That's a game-changer for preserving overall health during treatment," Anantharaman explained. Another surprising fact is that viruses are everywhere - even inside us. There are 10 to 100 times more viral particles in and on our bodies than human cells. These include many harmless phages that silently regulate bacterial populations. Phages are found in lakes, rivers, soil, oceans, and even in our intestines and on our skin. Anantharaman lab member Dinesh Kumar Kuppa Baskaran sampling Lake Mendota in the Summer. "In our lab, we use AI â€' both machine learning and deep learning â€' to rapidly identify phages from environmental samples. This process, which used to take years, now takes just a day. AI allows us to sift through millions of DNA sequences and pinpoint the viruses that can infect specific harmful bacteria," Anantharaman said. BARRIERS PERSIST However, awareness remains a major barrier. The medical community and industry are still focused on antibiotics. There's limited investment in phage therapy, and the necessary research infrastructure hasn't yet been built. For phage therapy to move forward, government support and academic research are essential. "Industry isn't currently interested in developing phage-based treatments â€' it's mostly up to institutions and public funding. But as the threat of antibiotic resistance grows, this is expected to change," Anantharaman opined. Phage therapy isn't just a scientific curiosity. It could be a major pillar of future medicine â€' if we choose to invest in it. Antimicrobial resistance isn't just a silent pandemic â€' India bears one of the heaviest burdens globally. While the country continues its search for new antibiotics to combat the crisis, researchers are now turning to naturally-occurring viruses in the environment as a promising tool to attack and kill multi-drug-resistant bacteria. Karthik Anantharaman, a visiting professor at Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, is spearheading such a project in the US by studying the nature of viruses in their natural habitat to attack and kill bacteria, a process called phage therapy. "One approach is to create more antibiotics but this only postpones the problem. New antibiotics also can lead to new forms of resistance, creating a never-ending cycle. An alternative and promising solution is phage therapy, which uses viruses called bacteriophages (or simply phages) to kill specific bacteria," Dr. Anantharaman, who is also a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told FINDING VIRUSES THAT KILL BACTERIA Anantharaman and his team discovered that viruses have yearly cycles and can affect other organisms in the ecosystem. As part of their study, some viruses were found to carry genes they had taken from the organisms they infected, which helped them carry out important biological functions. The research team also put together over 1.3 million viral genomes â€' the largest collection of its kind so far. Lake Mendota in the US has been monitored consistently since the late 1800s (Photo: Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin–Madison) "In our lab, we are exploring how phages behave over time. We conducted a 20-year study of a single lake, using DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) to track how phage populations changed. By sequencing environmental DNA and using AI tools, we identified over 1.3 million viral genomes. This allowed us to see how viruses shift month to month, season to season, and year to year, and to predict their future behaviour," Dr. Anantharaman said. While phage therapy might seem like a relatively new concept to Indian populations and even the West who rely heavily on antibiotics, Anantharaman mentioned that the phenomenon of using viruses to kill bacteria has been used in countries like Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia for decades. VIRUSES AS ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANER "Our goal is twofold: to improve human health and environmental health. Just as phages (virus) can target harmful bacteria in the human body, they can also be used to clean polluted ecosystems," University of Wisconsin-Madison professor said. For example, if a lake turns black or emits a smell like rotten eggs, a sign of hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria, phages can be used to selectively kill those bacteria and restore the lake's health. Anantharaman lab group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, pictured by Lake Mendota. Despite their promise, phage therapies are currently used only in compassionate cases, where all antibiotics have failed and the patient's condition is critical. HOW DO PHAGES OR VIRUSES WORK AGAINST BACTERIA? One major reason phages haven't entered mainstream treatment is that researchers still don't fully understand how they evolve over time. Consequently, there are no approved phage-based therapeutic products in India, the US, or Europe. But phages hold great promise, especially when used in combination with antibiotics. Here's how it works: when bacteria face antibiotics, they come under stress. Sometimes, this stress causes genetic changes that make them resistant. But in that process, bacteria may also become vulnerable to phages. So, using both antibiotics and phages together creates a powerful, complementary treatment strategy. In some cases, antibiotics work where phages don't and vice versa. Anantharaman lab member Patricia Tran sampling Lake Mendota, US. over frozen ice in the Winter. "One major advantage of phages is their precision. Unlike antibiotics, which kill both harmful and beneficial bacteria, phages target only one specific strain. If a person is infected with Pseudomonas, the phage used will kill only Pseudomonas, sparing the rest of the body's microbiome. That's a game-changer for preserving overall health during treatment," Anantharaman explained. Another surprising fact is that viruses are everywhere - even inside us. There are 10 to 100 times more viral particles in and on our bodies than human cells. These include many harmless phages that silently regulate bacterial populations. Phages are found in lakes, rivers, soil, oceans, and even in our intestines and on our skin. Anantharaman lab member Dinesh Kumar Kuppa Baskaran sampling Lake Mendota in the Summer. "In our lab, we use AI â€' both machine learning and deep learning â€' to rapidly identify phages from environmental samples. This process, which used to take years, now takes just a day. AI allows us to sift through millions of DNA sequences and pinpoint the viruses that can infect specific harmful bacteria," Anantharaman said. BARRIERS PERSIST However, awareness remains a major barrier. The medical community and industry are still focused on antibiotics. There's limited investment in phage therapy, and the necessary research infrastructure hasn't yet been built. For phage therapy to move forward, government support and academic research are essential. "Industry isn't currently interested in developing phage-based treatments â€' it's mostly up to institutions and public funding. But as the threat of antibiotic resistance grows, this is expected to change," Anantharaman opined. Phage therapy isn't just a scientific curiosity. It could be a major pillar of future medicine â€' if we choose to invest in it. Join our WhatsApp Channel
India Today
02-06-2025
- Health
- India Today
IIT Madras, US researchers study viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and the United States are examining viruses in freshwater lakes to see how they influence the environment and human health. The study may help us tackle antibiotic resistance and enhance how we treat water by Dr Karthik Anantharaman, Visiting Professor, Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, the team worked with more than 20 years' worth of data from 465 water samples collected from a lake in Madison, research employed machine learning software to study the behavior of viruses in their natural habitat. Dr Anantharaman, who is also a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to track viruses more closely. 'Knowing how viruses change and interact with their environment helps us prepare for outbreaks and understand their role in nature,' he said. Dinesh Kumar (A lab member) VIRUSES SHOW PATTERNS, POTENTIAL IN TACKLING POLLUTION AND SUPERBUGSScientists discovered that viruses have yearly cycles and can affect other organisms in the viruses contained genes that were "borrowed" from their hosts, enabling them to perform essential biological processes. The team also reconstructed more than 1.3 million viral genomes -- the largest dataset of its type to of the hopeful applications is in phage therapy, a method that employs viruses to attack and destroy pathogenic bacteria. It may provide an answer to infections no longer treatable with antibiotics. Patrica Tran sampling lake The research also indicated that pollution can influence the population of viruses. It may aid in creating means to control water quality and mitigate issues such as algal Madras Professor Karthik Raman explained that most viruses provide ecosystem balance, similar to how predators regulate wildlife study, which appeared in Nature Microbiology, was conducted by researchers from IIT Madras, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the overall environmental and health-related research initiatives of IIT Madras.
Hans India
02-06-2025
- Science
- Hans India
IIT Madras study shows viruses follow seasonal and yearly cycles
New Delhi: Amid a fresh wave of Covid-19, caused by the SARS-CoV2, a new study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras showed that viruses follow seasonal and yearly cycles. The international study, undertaken along with a team of scientists from the universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas at Austin, focussed on viruses in freshwater lakes. The researchers used cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) tools to study 465 freshwater lake samples from Madison, Wisconsin, collected over more than 20 years -- representing the longest DNA-based monitoring of a natural environment on Earth. By sequencing all the DNA from the lakes using a method called metagenomics, the researchers reconstructed 1.3 million virus genomes. The study enabled the researchers to learn how viruses change with the seasons, over decades, and in response to environmental shifts. 'Viruses follow seasonal and yearly cycles, with many reappearing year after year, showing remarkable predictability,' said the researchers in the paper, published in the Nature Microbiology Journal. 'Viruses can 'steal' genes from their hosts and repurpose them for their own benefit. Viruses evolve over-time, with some genes becoming more dominant due to natural selection,' they added. The findings also revealed the vital roles viruses play in ecosystems, not just by influencing the environment but also by supporting other organisms. The team found 578 examples of viral genes that help with critical processes like photosynthesis and methane use -- highlighting how viruses are beneficial to the health and stability of natural systems. 'The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us just how important it is to track viruses. Understanding how viruses emerge, evolve, and interact with their environments is critical -- not only for responding to pandemics but also for recognising the vital roles they play in ecosystems. Yet, long-term studies of viral communities, particularly in natural environments, are rare,' said Dr. Karthik Anantharaman, Visiting Professor, at Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras. 'This lack of data creates a significant knowledge gap, hindering our ability to predict how viruses influence both human health and environmental stability. By investing in long-term viral monitoring, we can better prepare for future outbreaks and uncover the complex ways viruses contribute to the health of our planet,' added Anantharaman, who is also an Associate Professor of Microbial and Viral Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US. In addition, studying viruses in freshwater systems can transform how we manage water resources, natural ecosystems, and public health, said the team. These findings also open doors to innovative strategies for ecosystem management, such as using viruses to restore balance in disrupted environments such as polluted lakes.
