Robin Warren & Barry Marshall
(Disclaimer: Do your own research and consult a medical professional regarding medicinal advice and that this blog only serves to provide informational/educational informational)
Let me tell a story about who holds the name of the title of this blog. It involves taking on the project of how gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) can take place:
I must ask each of you reading this, imagine that someone were to ask how would you feel about ingesting a “heavy inoculated 4 day culture plate of Helicobacter (pylori)… in alkaline peptone water (283)?” Not only that, this person would need you to refrain from eating meals for almost an entire day. This person would then explain that he wants to understand if there is a bacterium that can grow inside the stomach and to see if the inhabitance of this specific bacterium would cause inflammation of the stomach, aka gastritis.
Barry Marshall decided that if he wanted to learn about something related to the gastric (related to the stomach) system, he had to experiment on a model organism close enough to humans, that could indicate a pattern of bacterial exposure that leads to such symptoms. Ethically, it was too much to ask for a human volunteer to knowingly consume a bacterial culture that would require treatment if Marshall’s hypothesis was correct. Unfortunately, for Marshall, experimenting on pigs did not lead to the promulgation of stomach inflammation (283).
But why H. pylori? Why not just any bacteria? Well, all of our stomach lumens (the bodies of the stomach) are filled with large concentrations of strong acid — acid that can wreak havoc on many microorganisms that enter your stomach anytime you open your mouth. What prevents the stomach acid from burning the rest of our insides? We have surface mucous cells that secrete alkaline (basic) fluids that neutralize the acidity, along with a mucus component that helps lubricate the food bolus that eases movement throughout the GI tract. The mucus component, mucin, helps construct a 1–3 mm thick mucus layer that surrounds our stomach lining, protecting us from ulcerations (think about bicarbonate ions, along with a mucus layer that acts as a skin barrier for the stomach lining from very acidic concentrations). Additionally, other products can be taken to ease the acidity of the stomach, in case one was to suffer from a stomach ulcer. Namely: Proton pump inhibitors, which can inhibit acidic protons from the parietal cells (cells primarily responsible for carrying acidic Hydrogen ions into the stomach lumen), or Omeprazole, a common medication for acid reflux.
Robin Warren, who was Barry Marshall’s colleague, also wondered what causes stomach inflammation preceding stomach ulceration. He explained that “‘it was taught that bacteria do not grow in the stomach. When I was a student, this was taken as so obvious as to barely rate a mention (282).’” Yet, one day, by taking biopsies of men and women that suffered gastric ulcers, he found a hazy, blue layer. That blue layer, upon further examination, was indication of spiral, helical-tailed organisms. These organisms were thus named Helicobacter for its shape, and pylorus for its proximity to the stomach outlet valve.
So, after inoculating a strain of H. pylori for a few days and dissolving the bacteria in alkaline peptone water (to protect the bacteria enough until it reaches the stomach’s acidic secretions), Barry Marshall took down the “cloudy, brown liquid” in one gulp (283). The symptoms did not occur immediately, but after a few days, Marshall experienced nausea, vomiting, night sweats, and chills. After obtaining a biopsy from a colleague, the scan found a dense layer of bacteria in his stomach with craters of the stomach lining, indicating that ulceration had happened. After being treated with antibiotics, he went about submitting his own findings. This story, as detailed further in “The Emperor of All Maladies” became a significant finding in terms of early diagnosis of possible gastric cancer before severe inflammation that is linked with chronic gastric (stomach) ulceration takes place. Finally, this experiment showed that chronic H. pylori — induced gastritis is linked with stomach cancer, which may point to the hope that with early detection, patients may be able to avoid cancer diagnosis altogether. Yes…Barry Marshall and Robin Warren shared the Nobel Prize in 2005 for their contributions in the field.
It’s stories like these that are so memorable and really are a testament to the brilliant and courageous minds of the scientific community. To each of you, I must recommend the book “Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This is not the only amazing story that the author details in his book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9j92o4wz0 a short interview with Robin Warren
