A group of researchers at San Diego State University led by microbial ecologist Forest Rohwer found that the mucus that exist in the body of almost all the animals in various organs contain a type of bacteriophage (informally phage) viruses (image ©Adenosine) that can function as a second immune system that procects from infections.
This research shows that there’s a symbiosis between those bacteriophage viruses and animals. The mucus is used not only as a barrier to protect certain tissues but is also the home of these viruses. When bacteria such as Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli), some of which may be dangerous, are in contact with the mucus, are attacked by this kind of virus, which use them to reproduce.
The mucus consists mainly of large molecules called mucins, composed of thousands of glycan sugars attached to proteins. The researchers showed how bacteriophage viruses are attached to these sugars. The glycans are highly variable but the viruses have a number of proteins that allows them to remain attached to them.
The link between viruses and mucus is important. The researchers have tried to test the effectiveness of the phages scattering them on tissues that don’t produce mucus together with bacteria of the E. coli type. The result is clearly as the cells of tissues without mucus have suffered a level of death caused by bacteria three times higher than those of tissues that produce mucus.
An additional finding is that the bacteriophage viruses found in the mucus of many animal species attack the most common bacteria. It looks like a typical form of evolutionary adaptation in which the viruses that are able to attack the most prevalent bacteria are more likely to reproduce. One of the aims of the group who carried out this research is to understand the evolutionary dynamics of those phages.
Obviously, a key objective of this research is to assess the implications for the health of human beings. The existence of the bacterial flora that helps us digest is known. The discovery of a viral immune system shows a symbiosis of a different type that could be exploited in the future.
In the future it may be possible to fight bacterial infections by enhancing existing bacteriophage viruses injecting new versions that specifically attack certain types of dangerous bacteria. Microbiologist Jeremy Barr, one of the researchers, spoke of Bacteriophage Adherence to Mucus (BAM) model, a new immunity model based on those viruses. Considering the current advances in biotechnology, probably this type of research is just at the beginning.
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