MIT
Thinking about mucus may disgust you. However, MIT researchers have now identified components of the substance that can interact with a specific type of yeast and prevent it from causing an infection, according to a press release from the institution published this month.
Glycans to the rescue
These components are called glycans and are an important part of mucins, the gel forming polymers that make up mucus. Now, research shows that these glycans may be specialized to help fight many pathogens such as Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, & Staphylococcus aureus.
Katharina Ribbeck, Professors Andrew & Erna Viterbi at MIT, who led the research team, said: “The picture that emerges is that mucus displays a vast library of small molecules with many virulence inhibitors against all sorts of problematic pathogens, ready to be discovered & leveraged.
Now, the researchers hope that these mucins can help researchers design new antifungal drugs or make pathogenic fungi more susceptible to existing drugs, as some types of pathogenic fungi have developed resistance to them. However, detecting these glycans was not an easy task.
“Individual glycans are nearly impossible to isolate from mucus samples using current technologies,” said Rachel Hevey, a research associate at the University of Basel. “The only way to study the properties of individual glycans is to synthesize them, which involves extremely complex and time-consuming chemical processes.”
Currently, only small number of research groups in the world are developing methods for synthesizing these complex molecules, but the new study could inspire more research. Of course, the next step would be to find a way to deliver glycans into the human body.
Drug delivery for mucus
Ribbeck is currently working with colleagues specializing in drug delivery to find solutions. She also has research underway to explore how glycans affect a variety of microbes. “We went through different pathogens, learning how to take advantage of this amazing set of natural regulatory molecules,” she said.
“This new study is very exciting because we think this new work has important implications for how we can develop new antibacterial therapies in the future,” said Clarissa Nobile, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California at Merced.
“If we find a therapeutic way to deliver or enhance these protective mucin glycans in the human mucosal layer, we can prevent and treat human infections by maintaining micro-organisms in their commensal forms.
What does this mean now? Much more work needs to be done until the mucus can actually fight infection, but the studies are promising. Meanwhile, the next time you sneeze or catch a cold, you might want to remind yourself that mucus is actually protecting you.
The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
