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Viruses In Mucus Protect From Infection
ananyo writes "Researchers have discovered that animal mucus — ' whether from humans, fish or corals' — is loaded with bacteria-killing viruses called phages. These protect their hosts from infection by destroying incoming bacteria. In return, the phages are exposed to a steady torrent of microbes in which to reproduce. Mucus mainly consists of huge molecular complexes called mucins, which are made up of thousands of glycan sugars attached to a central protein backbone. The team showed that phages stick to these sugars, reducing the number of bacteria that can attach to mucus by more than 10,000 times."
I'm protecting my myself from bacteria -honest....
I'm just sayin'
Well, that does give some meaning to the phrase "to lick ones wounds".
Not new meaning, just new understanding. Saliva was already well known to have anti-bacterial properties. That is why animals lick their wounds. This just helps us better understand the mechanism. One theory that I have heard is that when a wound is licked, the wounded animal ingests the infecting bacteria, and develops antibodies which prevent the infection from spreading. This is similar to one reason that mother animals lick their babies: they ingest any bacteria on their young, and develop antibodies in their milk which are passed to their young when they nurse. This research shows one more reason that licking both your wounds and your young is a good idea.
"Mucus is known to prevent particles such as dust, pollen, bacteria and dirt from reaching the lungs and the trachea. This is because these particles can cause irritation and infections to the lungs. Mucus is usually produced in the nose, where it lubricates the hairs found within the lining of the nose."
http://www.ask.com/question/what-does-mucus-do
So I should lick my prostitutes first?
Actually I just know the guy; we work together. I'll bug him tomorrow for you.
Not if his mucus has anything to say about it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's 'Viruses'. People who think otherwise have their heads up their anii.
As expected, lots of /.-ers fail to make the distinction between phages and (human-infecting) viruses...
Phages have been tested as an interesting alternative to antibiotics. One disadvantage has been that they are very specific, which means that one often would have to apply many strains in order to fight an unclassified infection. On the other hand, with the advent of metagenomics, it has become clear that the composition of our commensal bacteria in the gut and on other places are critical for our health (both mental and physical) and that there may be several diseases caused by messing with this ecosystem by too frequent use of antibiotics (overlays of antibiotic usage and several diseases (heart diseases, diabetes, psychological diseases) per geographic area actually fit pretty nicely).
An interesting application of phages could be to manipulate our commensal ecosystems in such a way that we ensure a "healthy" composition in our gut, lungs etc.
Since the phages themselves are not alive, I have no idea what such a treatment would be called. It is not an antibiotic and it is not a probiotic... parabiotic? Nah... I will leave that to the marketers.