United States: In the latest reports, it is revealed that warm and damp environments located in our showerheads and toothbrushes appear to be ideal breeding grounds for microbes.
More about the finding
The new study has shown that there are hundreds of viruses that abode there, representing a vast biodiversity to be located in any home, on average.
As per the experts, these viruses are the kind that would give us the common cold, flu, or worse. They are termed bacteriophages, or phages for short, CNN Health reported.
They are also considered as a natural enemy of bacteria.
More about the phages – experts
As per the experts, these tiny, tripod-like phages have evolved to hunt and eat up a certain kind of bacterial species.
According to Erica Hartmann, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, who is also a leader of the stude, “The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild,” as CNN Health reported.
“We found many viruses that we know very little about and many others that we have never seen before. It’s amazing how much-untapped biodiversity is all around us,” Hartmann added.
Details of the study
The researchers from the university performed a study on samples of biofilms, which are the glue-like communities of microorganisms attached to a surface from thirty-four toothbrushed and ninety-two showerheads, to reach the final answers.
The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes.
According to Hartmann, “One of the things … that we’ve started to be able to do is, from those same types of samples, look at not just which bacteria are there, but actually which bacteriophages,” CNN Health reported.
According to Hartmann, “There’s also interest in designing maybe more sophisticated drugs so that instead of taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic and wiping out your entire microbiome, you would be able to take this drug that would only affect the pathogen and leave the rest of your microbiome intact.”
In the US, there are more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections, and they occur every year. Moreover, the WHO also labeled the problem as one of the biggest global public health risks that have occurred, where it could make a standard medical treatment such as surgery, cesarean sections, and chemotherapy much riskier.
The researchers pointed out that by sequencing the bacteria’s DNA and then examining their associated phages with the help of some “fairly complicated computer analyses,” “have been able to tell us a massive amount about what’s actually in there,” as Joe Parker, a senior research fellow at the UK’s National Biofilms Innovation Centre, and was not part of the study stated.