People don’t eat for one, or even for two, but for trillions!

Dr. Savage, an organic chemistry professor at BYU, gave a seminar to the BYU-Idaho Chemistry Department on Dec. 5th. He titled his presentation, “You are not alone; we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Inside the human body are trillions of bacteria. These bacteria absorb what people eat, and they grow or fade based on what they are fed. Dr. Savage explained that sometimes, when people stop eating foods that the bacteria need, “they start eating us.”

Sometimes the mucus lining of the stomach becomes their food, according to Cell Press study.

He referenced top journals including Nature Microbiology, Biofilms and Microbiomes and Cell Press. These journals say that the health of the human gut microbiota, the collective community of bacteria in human intestines and stomach, can affect mental health and cognitive performance, and it can cause infection.

Bacteria in the gut plays an important role, but it isn’t the only bacteria-housing part of the body. Bacteria exists all throughout the body, and Dr. Savage focused on the lungs.

There are antimicrobial peptides (AMP) in the body that act like antibiotics. They exist throughout the human body and kill bad bacteria. These are also known as bacterial “shepherds,” as Savage explained.

By way of necessary breathing, the mouth welcomes in large quantities of bacteria throughout the day. The bacterial shepherds of the human body kill off most of them before they reach the lungs.

When too much bacteria enters the lungs, it leads to pneumonia, which can be deadly if the bacteria cannot be purged.

Savage presented the problem: for patients who need help breathing and are intubated with a ventilation tube, the bacteria can get out of hand. Because the ventilation tube doesn’t have AMPs, the bacteria grows on the inside and outside of the tube, as if it were free real estate. It is a moist environment, so as moisture collects, the bacteria drips down the tube and into the lungs. This often puts already vulnerable patients on death’s door, creating ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).

“Over 6 million potential deaths from nosocomial infections (occur) worldwide each year,” according to N8 Bioscience. “60–70% of nosocomial infections are associated with biomaterials or implants.” Nosocomial infections refer to an infection contracted within a hospital.

Taking what’s known about AMPs and bacteria, Savage and his team created a new compound that is extremely effective at killing unwanted bacteria. This molecule is called CSA-13, nicknamed a “super shepherd.”

CSA-13 was then factored into a hydrogel that can be thinly coated inside the ventilator tube “with the thickness of a human hair,” according to Dr. Savage.

Where bacterial colonies were found in used ventilator tubes before, they are now practically nonexistent. The percentage of colonized microbes, or aspirates, dropped 78% with the use of this thin coating, branded with the trademark “CeraShield” by N8 Bioscience.

The discovery is patented, with 50 patents in the United States, and about 100 patents internationally. They continue to conduct studies to fully understand the effects of the CeraShield product.

Further data from a study conducted in Canada is scheduled to be released to the public in 2025.

Featured image: Portrait of Dr. Paul B. Savage, PhD. Photo credit: BYU.