EATING BACTERIA: HOW CAN THIS BE A GOOD IDEA?

Ever wondered what cool sciencey stuff they are teaching undergraduates at the University of Queensland?

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15/03/2013

GENETICS

EATING BACTERIA: HOW CAN THIS BE A GOOD IDEA?

(Note - This is an actual assignment submitted for grading at UQ)

WHAT COULD BE GOOD ABOUT EATING BACTERIA?

Eating bacteria as a vaccine? If a scientist in a white lab coat with crazy hair and thick glasses tried to convince you to drink a big tub of wreathing bacteria, would you do it?  This is exactly what a research scientist at QE2 Medical Centre in Perth is trying to design. Whilst Dr Barry Marshal is not such a stereotype, he is indeed taking this strange concept extremely seriously. In 1981, Dr Barry Marshal and another scientist Dr Robin Warren were investigating the possibility that it was bacteria that was the cause of human stomach ulcers. In the early 1980’s science in general had not properly identified the type of organism we now know as extremophiles, and the idea that bacteria could survive in such a hostile environment as an acid filled human stomach was unproven.  After trying to identify and culture the bacteria they found within our stomachs, Dr Marshal and Dr Warren were able to link Gastritis to bacteria, and they won a Nobel Prize for it. So now, Dr Marshal’s plan is to genetically modify and then add bacteria to the human body by digestion to ‘trick’ our immune system into a response, just like a vaccine.

WOW! SO HOW DOES THIS WORK?

The ‘trick’ is an artificial ‘infection’ in the body that has the ability to induce an antibody response. Your stomach provides an incredibly powerful first line of defence against an infection, so to get this artificial infection into your body, doctors usually have no choice but direct injection. The extremely interesting thing about Dr Marshal’s extremophile bacteria (Helicobacter) is that it can withstand the powerful digestive acid defences of the human stomach. Helicobacter has been now linked to ulcers, gastritis and cancer. Yet it seems that Helicobacter evolved to live in our gut in an almost symbiotic, sometimes beneficial way. It evolved as lifestyles in the past weren’t conducive to the negative effects. Dr Marshal plans to genetically splice them with common flu. The design would be a Helicobacter combined with protein receptors attached to it that would be identical to the common flu. This would trigger an immune response for both the helicobacter and the flu virus. If they could do this, then they could also attach other virus receptors and could potentially design a drink that would ‘vaccinate’ you against 4 or 5 different diseases. But not only this, because this new immunisation process is grown, as Dr Marshal says “You would just need to borrow the Guinness factory fermenter for 8 weeks and you could have upwards of 200 million doses.” This is incredibly important in our globalised world where diseases can spread internationally in less than 24 hours. Finally but certainly not least of all, unlike vaccines which quickly go past their used by date, the Helicobacter could be stored in dormant stage in a large library ready to be quickly grown and then deployed.

DRINKING BACTERIA: IS THIS A GOOD IDEA OR NOT?

It seems to me personally that this is the beginning stages of a revolution in medicine and science. The old adages of the 19^th and 20^th century are being swept away as science uses the natural world to our benefit. Imagine a world with genetically engineered Helicobacter spliced with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in it. Imagine that these bacteria are designed to attack specific cancer cells within our bodies. It would be a bacterium that is taken via a pill and digested, once in our system it is ignored by our immune system and moves to attack and digest cancer cells. This idea comes from the days when my father was diagnosed with Prostate cancer. Speaking to the doctors who treated him they all spoke of the future for medicine and how our current methods were unfortunately primitive. While we do have a lot of work to do before we are at this dreamt of future, this trigger has shown me that we are at the very beginning of this revolution. Whilst I am personally convinced that this is the future, there are many traditional beliefs of science and society that must change. The stereotypical scientist is indeed changing in social mindset. Yet genetic engineering still has many challenges it needs to face in the public image. Genetically Modified (GM) crops are still viewed with intense suspicion by the public. Elements within the Greenpeace movement see it as a major threat to the world and have even gone as far as to physically destroy research GM crops. Once projects such as this one are shown to be the great benefits they are, you too will be thinking that drinking bacteria is a good idea.