Artificial mucus can have an important role in future health treatments

Synthetic mucus could play an important role in future medical treatments, according to a new study of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. University researchers have found a way to produce artificial mucus, including the “special scheme” sugars found in mucus that paves the way for new types of treatments.

The mucus, as raw as possible for many people, plays an important role in human health, especially when it comes to managing “good” and “bad” bacteria. The key to the substance is mucins, which contain “important sugars” and information, the study notes. The researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of the production of healthy artificial mucus to help the body take care of bad bacteria.

Researchers note that while mucins are mainly sugar, sugar should be present in “special diagrams” that bacteria can recognize. These models help the body to tease good and bad bacteria, the latter can lead to a variety of diseases such as Crohn’s disease. Note, researchers say they are now able to design these specific sugars “as needed.”

There are different potential uses for artificial mucins, researchers that indicate it can be useful as a means of resolving infections in the body without antibiotics. An ocular infection, as an example, can be treated with eye drops containing mucinges capable of stripping bad bacteria.

These mucinex may also be able to treat the flu virus, which infects mucus membranes. One of the main authors of the Associate Study Professor Yoshiki Narimatsu explained:

“An incredible number of diseases have a connection to the intestinal flora, but we still know very little about how we can control the intestinal flora in the treatment of diseases. This is where synthetic mucins could open up new treatment options. Ultimately, one can imagine using mucins as a pre-biotic material, that is, as molecules that help the good bacteria in the body.”