H. pylori - the story of stomach ulcers
March 20th, 2008 ecoliHelicobacter pylori is a fascinating bacteria with an interesting historical timeline. The Microbiology Blog ran a little segment on it, to announce an upcoming book, and I thought I’d add to the story.
Back in the days before 1979, stomach ulcers were blamed entirely on spicy food and stress. People that came down with ulcers or gastritis were put on a bland diet of oatmeal and soft foods like that.
Enter Australian pathologists, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall. They successfully isolated and cultured H. pylori from mucosal linings of the stomach specimens. They suggested that it was H. pylori in fact, and not diet, that was the direct agent of stomach ulcers and gastritis.
Initially, the response of the scientific community was skepticism. The consensus was that no organism could survive the high acidity of the stomach (pH 2). However, in an astonishing experiment, they proved the entire scientific community wrong.
Dr. Marshall drank H. pylori cultures, subsequently developing gastritis and the organism was recovered from his stomach lining. After ten days, an endoscopy was taken proving his symptoms were, in fact, gastritis and that H. pylori was present. He then treated himself with bismuth salts and Metronidazole, antibiotics to anaerobic organisms. They went on to show antibiotics as an effective treatment for many clinical cases of stomach ulcers.
To make the case even more interesting, in turned out, from later DNA sequencing data, this organism represented an entirely new genus of bacteria. Of which, several other species were discovered in other mammals and birds.
For their work and obvious dedication to ‘hands on’ experimentation, Warren and Barry received the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine.
*disclaimer: drinking bacterial cultures will not necessarily garauntee a Noble Prize, though if you’re really desperate, it might be worth a try*
global RSS feed.