Our body is definitely fabulous. A study published in the journal Cell today claims that the vagina contains a multitude of special bacteria, since they produce molecules that can be used to make… treatments for vaginal infections.
To reach this conclusion, researchers at the University of California identified commensal bacteria in the vagina of women, known in scientific jargon as Lactobacillus gasseri. These bacteria, which continuously stimulate our defense system, produce an antibiotic (lactocillin), very similar to pharmaceutical drugs used against vaginal infections.
Their advantage? Unlike chemical antibiotics, which you buy at pharmacies, and which destroy all bacteria indiscriminately, these "natural medicines" would only eliminate pathogens.
Better ! After pushing their work even further, the researchers discovered that our body harbors no less than 3,118 distinct groups of bacterial genes involved in the synthesis of these drug molecules!
“Typically, drugs are discovered by pharmaceutical companies, then approved by the FDA (the United States Drug Administration) and prescribed by doctors. There, we discover that the bacteria that live in us can bypass this whole laboratory process, ”rejoices Michael Fischbach, one of the study biologists, in an interview with the American news site The Huffington Post .
"The methods used to find this type of bacteria could revolutionize the way we approach pharmaceutical research and drug manufacturing," he said. And knock!
