DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[chiggah]

Nanobacterium sanguineum fixes calcium and phosphorus and converts it into carbonate apatite, the form in which these minerals are found in pathologically calcified tissue. N. sanguineum can be cultured from kidney stones, calcified arteries, and polycystic kidney tissue (which involves pathological calcification), and its antigen has been detected in dental pulp stones and calcified pineal tissue. So far, it appears that wherever we find pathological calcification, we will also find N. sanguineum. So how do we get from Nanobacterium sanguineum to pathological calcification?

Many sea creatures are small and defenseless, but within their shell they enjoy protection from their natural predators. The only natural predator of N. sanguineum is the immune system of their host. Given the small size and slow growth rate of this organism, N. sanguineum vs. immune system wouldn’t seem to be a fair fight – it isn’t, the Nanobacteria always win! The immune system can engulf or surround Nanobacteria, if the immune response is aggressive enough. Even then our defense is moot, as the Nanobacteria either kill the cell that engulfed them, or they calcify inside the immune cell only to kill it later. Host generated antibodies to the Nanobacterial biofilm should bind to the individual Nanobacteria, rendering them a tasty morsel for circulating phagocytes. Rapidly dividing bacteria should hog all the available nutrients, crowding Nanobacteria out. But this does not happen, because:

a) Nanobacteria shelters itself from the immune system (calcific semi-dormant defense),

and

b) Nanobacteria can live where other bacteria cannot (extremophilic defense.