Our bodies contain 380 trillion viruses, what are they doing in there?

If you think there is no virus in your body, think again. It is difficult to express to you, but the human body is always invaded by countless microorganisms, often called microbiome. These tiny creatures have even been attached to us since prehistoric times until now and forever.

It has taken a few years for scientists to measure the amount of microorganisms on the human body. The results show that there are at least 38 trillion bacteria on your skin and inside your body, more than your own cell.

Surprisingly unexpectedly, the amount of virus residing in your body is 10 times greater, up to 380 trillion, forming a community called human virus (human virome).

The good news is that these viruses are not always as dangerous as Ebola, Zika or simply the virus that causes the flu. Many viruses live inside your body, but only infect microbiome bacteria, they are called phages.

Phages and many other everyday viruses still live and reproduce in the human body. Ironically, our understanding of them is very limited.

This is a simulation of the microorganisms on the human body, but the human virus system is 10 times more numerous.

What we know about the human virus system

Science at this time can tell us some things about the human virus system.

The first is that viruses can live anywhere, every corner, every surface inside and outside the body. Wherever, where scientists illuminate microscopes, viruses are found. Viruses are in the blood, on the skin, in the lungs, urine .

It will be smarter to ask where on and in the body there is no virus, instead of asking where the virus lives on your body.

Secondly, viruses in the human virus system are very contagious. Researchers have found that as long as you live with someone, the viruses in the virus system of two people will definitely interfere with each other.

Spouses, children, roommates and even your pets share the virus system together.

How does the virus kill bacteria?

The third thing is that many viruses are quite friendly to you, but they are nightmares of bacteria in the body.

Reason? The virus infects and kills bacteria. Once inside, the virus will take over the biological machinery inside the bacteria, including their genes. Viruses control bacteria that produce more viruses, instead of reproducing or duplicating to get more bacteria.

As such, the amount of virus synthesized inside the bacteria increases, until they explode to tear off the cell membrane and kill the bacteria. These viruses infect new bacteria again and repeat the same cycle.

To combat this type of virus, bacteria form a mechanism called CRISPR-Cas . CRISPR are repetitions on bacterial DNA, which can identify strange gene segments of invading viruses.

Once the virus is identified, the bacteria will release an enzyme called Cas, which acts as a strange gene shear, thereby protecting itself and destroying the virus.

And if you remember, scientists took advantage of this process from bacteria to develop the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool . On the opposite side, we also learn how to infect bacteria with viruses to study phage therapy, new hope for treating infections in the era of antibiotic resistance.

So there is always a war between virus and bacteria, going on every minute of every day. We simply don't know which side will win the battle, and the consequences of that for our health.

Humans have developed the CRISPR gene editing technique from the war between viruses and bacteria.

Viruses can make you healthier

What do scientists want to study on our bodies for viruses, other than to make us healthier? They hope to use a certain mechanism of the human virus system for medical purposes.

For example, phage therapy is used to treat cases resistant to all antibiotics today. Scientists inject millions of viruses into the infection inside the patient's body, letting them kill the resistant virus.

Unfortunately, phage therapy has not been widely used, because we do not fully understand how viruses work. The question is what happens if the virus attacks too hard, they kill the bacteria inside our bodies.

Scientists hope to take advantage of a mechanism of the human virus system to serve the purpose.

Phage antibodies may also occur, when harmful bacteria find a mechanism to protect themselves against phage attack. Viruses can now only kill bacteria, increase the chances and habitat for pathogens to multiply.

In order for this disaster to not happen, there is nothing else to do, scientists must participate in the race with harmful bacteria. We must find a way to use safe phages with probiotics, before bad bacteria learn how to fight them.

At the current rate of research, it may take many years for phage therapy to develop to a safe level for common use like previous antibiotics. But we have the right to hope that the viruses that have been with us from the past to the present will be of great help to us in the future.