Mucus—Bacteria Interactions

Rayner, Charlotte F. J.; Wilson, Robert

doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8874-5_9

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…This information is crucial because variations of charge density of mucins could strongly affect the mucin electrostatic interactions and bulk properties of mucus, as well as bacterial binding to mucus (van Loosdrecht et al 1990;Rayner and Wilson 1997).…”

Section: Polyelectrolyte and Hydrophobic Features Of Mucinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the role of hydrophobic interactions in mucus -bacteria adhesion is well established (Rayner and Wilson 1997). Hydrophobic interactions play critical roles on gastric mucin conformation, folding, and interchain binding (Bansil et al 1995).…”

Section: Polyelectrolyte and Hydrophobic Features Of Mucinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Strong interactions are known to take place in polymer-surfactant cosolutes even at very low concentrations (Kuhn et al 1998). Thus, the amphiphilic nature of mucins presents the likely prospect that hydrophobic interactions are at work in respiratory mucus, between mucins, between mucins and lipids present in mucus (Widdicombe 1987), or between mucins and other amphiphilic molecules like surfactants released by Clara cells (Griese 1999) or exopolymer substances (EPSs) released by bacteria in infected airway (Rayner and Wilson 1997). These issues represent significant gaps still to be investigated in airway mucus.…”

Section: Hydrophobic Interactions In Mucusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Supramolecular Dynamics of Mucus

Verdugo

2012

Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine

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Our purpose here is not to address specific issues of mucus pathology, but to illustrate how polymer networks theory and its remarkable predictive power can be applied to study the supramolecular dynamics of mucus. Avoiding unnecessary mathematical formalization, in the light of available theory, we focus on the rather slow progress and the still large number of missing gaps in the complex topology and supramolecular dynamics of airway mucus. We start with the limited information on the polymer physics of respiratory mucins to then converge on the supramolecular organization and resulting physical properties of the mucus gel. In each section, we briefly discuss progress on the subject, the uncertainties associated with the established knowledge, and the many riddles that still remain. A ROAD MAPM ucus has a complex set of functions in the airway, including its central role in mucociliary clearance. Defective mucus flow rests at the base of some of the most critical pulmonary pathology, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis (CF), and asthma. Research on the intricate mechanisms that regulate mucus rheology, particularly in CF, has been largely focused on mucins and on the defective function of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). The biochemistry and molecular biology of mucins (Perez-Villar and Hill 1999;Chen et al. 2001;Thornton et al. 2008) and the biophysics of the CFTR (Riordan 2005; Sheppard and Welsh 2006) have all received a great deal of attention during this last decade. Even so, the pathophysiology of defective mucus remains largely phenomenological, and an understanding of the mechanisms that make airway mucus transportable is still limited. Mucus is a polymer gel, and this question rests by and large in the domains of the physics and physical chemistry of polymer gels. The matrix of polymer gels forms a supramolecular network with emerging properties that cannot be understood only on the basis of the properties of the molecules that make it. When polymers are constrained to lie close together by physical or chemical bonds, their behavior departs from those of free polymers. A new set of features emerges that is largely determined by polymer-polymer and polymer-solvent interactions, as well as the topological features of the gel's matrix, including the nature and density of interconnections (low/high energy bonds and physical tangles) and the conformational state and mechanical properties of the polymers that make it. Nonetheless, most of the emphasis on mucus research remains focused on the biochemistry and molecular biology of mucins, the giant polymers found in the mucus gel matrix.

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Section: Polyelectrolyte and Hydrophobic Features Of Mucinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Polyelectrolyte and Hydrophobic Features Of Mucinsmentioning

confidence: 99%