At San Diego State University they discovered a previously unknown immune system that is in both humans and animals. There is a protective layer of mucus in all animals including humans. The Mucus starts in the mouth and goes through the gut. On the top layer of the mucus are sugar molecules. Bacteriophage attach themselves to the sugar molecules.
Bacteriophage, Phage for short, are viruses that infect bacteria. To kill the bacteria the phage
injects its DNA into a bacteria. The phage reproduces itself 50 times or more inside the bacteria. Then it explodes the bacteria killing the bacteria. and sending more Phage into the gut to kill more bacteria.
To test this they put E coli and phage on cells that didn’t make mucus. They found that the E coli produced three times the damage compared to the cells that produced mucus.This is the first time that a symbiotic relationship was found between Phage and animals. Hopefully this research will help get phage therapy used as medicine.
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