25 July 2023

MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS

Q1. What do you mean by “bacterophages”? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using bacteriophages to treat bacterial diseases.

GS III – Biotechnology related issues

• Bacteriophages, also known as phages or beneficial viruses, are a class of viruses that infect bacteria. They hunt down bacteria, attach to the surface of the bacterial cell, and then inject viral DNA inside the cell to complete their work. The bacterial DNA replication machinery may occasionally be used to help the viral DNA reproduce inside the bacterium. When the bacterial cell has produced enough fresh viruses, it explodes and releases the fresh viral poop.

The use of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections has several advantages:

• Combating antibiotic resistance: Since bacteriophages are efficient against bacteria that have evolved antibiotic resistance, this has increased interest in them. The rise of bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics is one of the largest medical challenges facing the world today.
• In contrast to many chemical antibiotics, which often have a wider spectrum of activity and are prone to generating superinfections, phages have little impact on the normal flora bacteria that protect human health because of their host specificity.
• Low toxicity: Because they are mostly composed of nucleic acids and proteins, phages are inherently non-toxic to humans, plants, and animals.
• They are suited for the majority of administration routes, have a variety of application forms, including liquids, creams, impregnated solids, etc. Phages are versatile in nature and can be employed in a variety of formulations, including the combination with specific antibiotics.
• Possibility of a single dose: During therapy, phages multiply and develop in quantity on their own; hence, only one dose may be necessary, thereby lowering the phage doses required to achieve efficacy and reducing treatment costs.
• Since phages are naturally occurring items, the public’s resistance to GMOs or medications created in a lab shouldn’t also apply to those substances.
• Phages are thought to be a ‘intelligent’ substance that proliferate at the infection site until there are no longer any bacteria, at which point they expel them.

There are certain disadvantages to treating bacterial illnesses with bacteriophages:

• Phage therapy needs to be uniquely customised to the microorganisms that infect patients; there should be no standardisation in treatment; yet, the absence of therapeutic standardisation is a significant problem.
• Data on using bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections in people are sparse, occasionally conflicting, or negative.
• Phages are more difficult to give than antibiotics, and a doctor needs specialised training to properly deliver and use phages.
• There may not be enough variability among phages to treat all bacterial infections, not all phages are beneficial as medications, and it may be difficult to identify the precise phage necessary to treat an infection.
• Since bacteria already have or have the ability to evolve a multitude of defensive mechanisms against viral infections, the risk of the emergence of bacterial resistance against bacteriophages exists.
• Concerns regarding the immune system: Phages are recognised by the human immune system when injected into the bloodstream, and some of them are immediately expelled, and the body eventually begins to produce antibodies to the phages. This suggests that a specific type of phage can only be used intravenously once.
• Concerns about phage therapy can be alleviated by selecting the proper phage, developing an efficient formulation, and improving clinician knowledge and comfort with product delivery. Bacteriophages are attractive alternatives to pharmaceutical antibiotics due to a number of characteristics that make them antibacterial agents.

Q2. Examine how pressure groups have contributed to strengthening the democratic system in the country.

GS II – Pressure groups and associated issues

• The term “pressure groups” can also refer to interest or vested groups, and they concentrate on particular initiatives and topics, and their only function is to influence the government to defend and advance the interests of their members. A political party, on the other hand, is a formalised association of individuals with shared political objectives and vi

The advancement of the country’s democratic system was facilitated by pressure groups in the following ways:

• Accountability and transparency: Pressure groups promote more accountability and transparency by analysing government policies and procedures and proposing the necessary corrections.
• Common people’s interests are not organised; pressure organisations help to give the interests of the people a tangible form. The role of pressure groups in forming and aggregating interests is significant. Pressure organisations act as a liaison between the public and the government.
• Pressure organisations are essential intermediary institutions between the government and the community that play a crucial role in the distribution of political power and serve as important checkpoints against the consolidation of power in order for a democracy to function effectively.
• Pressure groups function as a safety valve by providing a forum for people to voice their grievances, which promotes the growth of social integration.
• Political participation and the protection of democratic freedoms: Pressure groups support means for people to participate in politics without joining a party and also allow the protection of democratic freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.
• Pressure groups can act as change agents by drawing the government’s attention to the socioeconomic concerns of various segments of society.
• As a result, political parties and pressure groups are extra-constitutional organisations that are crucial to the political process. On the one hand, political parties play a significant role in addressing their concerns. Despite the fact that they are not the same, it is obvious that they are close. Pressure groups help by educating the parties regarding the concerns of their members and by assisting in the cross-fertilization of ideas and labour.