We learnt in Part 1 that benign skin bacteria help pathogens evade the immune system and cause infections.
To find out why this might happen, the same team investigated the “benign” bacteria, such as a part of its cell wall.
"Mice injected with the cell wall polymer along with very low doses of S. aureus indeed became infected."
"...[injecting with] polymer alone or the same low dose of S. aureus had no effect."
"...[injecting with] polymer alone or the same low dose of S. aureus had no effect."
This further reinforces that benign bacteria are crucial for infections; without them, the “bad” bacteria struggle to take a foothold.
Therefore, could the idea of “good” and “bad” microbes need updating?
