Cover everything in mucus. Although that seems completely disgusting researchers at MIT have found that covering things with mucus will help prevent the spread of infection by breaking up biofilms. You would think intuitively that mucous are the part of the infection as many of those people that are reading this (yes the five people) have had a cold at some point in their lives. However, as MIT reports the mucus which are large protein chains with lots of sugar molecules the mucus doesn't grab onto foreign particles and trap them. The bacteria is simply suspended in mucous so it can do less damage.
The surface tension and other physicochemical properties like rheology, and viscosity may be important characteristic that traps the bacteria . A typical surface tension of mucus in the a healthy adult may be 50 mN/m and vary by 10 mN/m in a diseased adult. I suspect that all proteins in the mucous are not equal so potentially some people may trap bacteria in their mucous better than others. If the surface tension of your mucous changes you might be able to detect diseases. Secondly, understanding the surface tension of mucus will also help of better delivery of nebulized drugs. One easy way to measure the surface tension of the your mucus is with the EZ-Pi Plus. This device might help to pave a new treatments for cancer, lung infections and fighting the common cold.
