In an American study published a few years ago in the journal Cell , a team from the University of Michigan (USA), led by molecular biologist Ursula Jakob, described how, just as at high temperatures, proteins lose their three-dimensional molecular structure and begin To agglomerate forming large and insoluble groups, as happens when you cook an egg, the hypochlorite in bleach causes the proteins to lose their structure and form large agglomerations . And just as eggs once cooked never become liquid again, agglomerated proteins usually remain insoluble, and damaged cells do not recover.
? Many of the proteins that hypochlorite attacks are essential for bacterial growth , so deactivating these proteins probably kills the bacteria ,? explains Marianne Ilbert, co-author of the work.
