Article: Does a sea of viruses inside our body help keep us healthy?

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Interesting article in Science about the potential role of bacteriophages in human immunity.

Barr thinks that in humans, a steady influx of the viruses creates an “intrabody phageome,” which may modulate immune responses. Work published this year by a team of Belgium-based researchers may back up this idea: When white blood cells taken from healthy people were exposed to five different phage species, the cells produced mainly immune molecules known to reduce flulike symptoms and inflammation. And in another hint of an immune link, a group led by immunologist Herbert Virgin at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in Missouri found that people with two autoimmune conditions, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, have altered gut phageomes.

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