Understanding nanobacteria, understanding disease, perhaps more understanding genetic

Scientists debate about what are classification of nanobacteria, is that a new class of life or just a particle from bacteria or another life form. Finish researcher Olavi Kajander and Turkish researcher Neva Citcioglu, Universiy of Kuopio, Findland  confirm that the nanobacteria is a living entity.The scientists assigned their discovery, which they named Nanobacterium sanguineum, to a subgroup of bacteria that includes Brucella and Bartonella, both of which have been shown to cause disease. The Finnish group also noted unusual features of the nanobacteria, including their ability to change shapes in culture, a property known as pleomorphism, which is a rare trait in living organisms. The nanobacteria were seen to change from small spherical bodies to films and clumps of mineralized material. The mineral in question turned out to be hydroxyapatite (apatite), a crystalline complex of calcium and phosphate found everywhere in nature, including mammalian bones as well as the shells of some invertebrates.


The small, round nanobacteria were not only covered by apatite walls but were often found hiding within large “igloo-shaped castles” or “dwelling places,” the researchers wrote.

Attempting to identify the source of nanobacteria, the Finnish team was surprised to find the creatures in most animal and human body fluids they examined—blood, saliva and urine, among others—and concluded that the tiny bugs posed a risk for diseases involving abnormal mineral agglomerations, such as kidney stones. Eventually conditions linked by various researchers with nanobacteria would expand to include many types of cancer, atherosclerosis, degenerative diseases such as arthritis, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and even viral infections such as HIV. Initial studies by the Finnish team had shown that 14 percent of healthy Scandinavian adults tested positive for antibodies against nanobacteria. Other scientists, such as Andrei P. Sommer of the University of Ulm in Germany, would later promote the idea that nanobacteria behave as transmissible pathogens, incriminating nanobacteria as a global health hazard.

Despite all these frightening implications, in many ways nanobacteria fulfilled the wildest dream of every scientist. Their very primitive nature, unusual characteristics and ubiquitous distribution suggested that nanobacteria might help explain the origins of life—not only on Earth but elsewhere in the cosmos.

Nanobacteria is just a new field to decipher the DNA code and could reveal the secret of life.