Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Snot superpowers
A perfect example of Carver's rules.
Via ScienceDaily, researchers decided to LOOK ABOUT THEM and TAKE HOLD OF THE SNOT THAT IS HERE. When they removed their theory goggles and started looking closely, they found that plain old mucus is a Master Counterspy.
Obviously mucus protects surfaces from dust and microbes and acids, just by being a gooey film. But wait, there's a whole lot more!
A new study from MIT reveals that glycans -- branched sugar molecules found in mucus -- are responsible for most of this microbe-taming. There are hundreds of different glycans in mucus, and the MIT team discovered that these molecules can prevent bacteria from communicating with each other and forming infectious biofilms, effectively rendering them harmless. "What we have in mucus is a therapeutic gold mine," says Katharina Ribbeck, the Mark Hyman, Jr. Career Development Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. "These glycans have biological functions that are very broad and sophisticated. They have the ability to regulate how microbes behave and really tune their identity." Ribbeck thought they might play a major role in the microbe-disarming activity she had previously seen from mucus. To explore that possibility, she isolated glycans and exposed them to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Upon exposure to mucin glycans, the bacteria underwent broad shifts in behavior that rendered them less harmful to the host. For example, they no longer produced toxins, attached to or killed host cells, or expressed genes essential for bacterial communication.Nature beats us to the punch every time, in ways that we haven't even BEGUN to explore. Life is infinitely amazing, and we owe a duty to its creator. On a more prosaic level, this new knowledge leads to new guidance. For instance, think twice before using mouthwash. Clearing out the goo feels good, but the goo is doing much more to control bacteria than the mouthwash.
Labels: Carver, Grand Blueprint
¶ 2:10 AM
