Scientists discover how our immune system fights bacterial infection

Our immune system has a special way to kill bacterial infections—and scientists have only recently discovered what it does.

Our infection-fighting abilities are centred around the proteasome, a structure in every cell whose main job is to recycle proteins.  But when there’s an infection, it changes roles and harnesses the old proteins into weapons that can rip open the outer layer of bacteria to kill them.

It’s a phenomenon that happens throughout the body, and essentially proteasomes are releasing new types of antibiotics when faced with an infection.  Scientists think they may be able to harvest them to produce new generations of antibiotics.

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Isreal made the discovery when they tested bacteria growing in the lab.  Once the proteasome was disabled, cells were more easily infected with bacteria such as Salmonella.

What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community