New immune system discovered

[Jim__]

[center][/center]

From MedicalXpress:

(Medical Xpress)—A research team, led by Jeremy Barr, a biology post-doctoral fellow, unveils a new immune system that protects humans and animals from infection.

Mucus may be slimy and gross, but a San Diego State University research team, led by Biology Post-doctoral Fellow Jeremy Barr, has discovered that it is also home to a powerful immune system that could change the way doctors treat a number of diseases.

In this previously undocumented immune system, researchers uncovered bacteria-infecting viruses known as bacteriophage, which shield the body from invading infection.

The discovery, made possible with funding from the National Institutes of Health, concentrates on the protective layers of mucus which are present in all humans and animals. It serves both as a home for large populations of beneficial microbes—which can include fungi, bacteria and viruses—and as an entry point for infection.

more ...

[bananas]

1. "animals and humans - ranging from a sea anemone to a mouse and a person"

The researchers sampled mucus from animals and humans—ranging from a sea anemone to a mouse and a person—and found that bacteriophage adheres to the mucus layer on all of them.

So those kelp beds are probably swarming with phage.

[tridim]

2. Rock on boogers!

[glinda]

3. good one!

[TheMadMonk]

4. And once again America "discovers" what the rest of the world...

...has know for decades.

There was too much quick easy money to be made in anti-biotics to waste any money on researching therapies which have to be tailored to each pathogen individually.

On the other side of the Iron Curtain, phage therapies have been in use since the 1920's.