Yogurt!
Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that lives in the stomach and the duodenum in humans and causes stomach ulcers, stomach cancer, gastritis and other digestive tract problems. Ulcers that come from this bacterium can easily be treated by antibiotics and acid suppressants. This treatment is easily accessible in the United States, but not so in poverty stricken countries, where millions are infected with H. pylori. Because of this fact, scientists have been actively pursuing a convenient, cost-effective solution that would be available to a vast majority of the population.
Hajime Hatta, Ph.D., a chemist at Kyoto Women's University in Kyoto, Japan has come up with a possible solution to this problem. H. pylori depends on a protein called urease to attach and infect the lining of the stomach. Hatta and colleagues decided to use this fact in an effort to solve the problem. They made a “vaccine” to the urease protein by injecting the protein into some chickens, whose immune systems then made antibodies, called IgY-urease. The researchers were able to take this antibody from the chicken eggs and put it into a delicious yogurt, theorizing that eating this simple yogurt would have the same effects as the more expensive treatment of antibiotics and acid suppressants.
Testing their theory, the scientists gathered 42 people that tested positive for H. pylori and divided them into a control group and a test group. The control group was given 2 cups of regular yogurt daily for four weeks, while the test group was given yogurt containing the antibody just as often. The scientists qualified the success of their experiment based on the levels of urea in the test subjects. They looked at levels of urea because it is a by-product of urease. Lower levels of urease would indicate decreased activity of bacteria. As they had hoped, the control group had higher levels of urea than the test group, indicating that the yogurt with the antibody was successful in inhibiting the bacterium from working with the urease protein to damage the stomach wall. The acidic environment of the stomach eventually killed the antibody, but not before it effected the protein-bacterium interaction.
If integrated into regular dietary routine, this yogurt could effectively lower the presence of H. pylori, thus reducing the prevalence of stomach ulcers in an economical way.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47131
Staci Jessen 502
Hajime Hatta, Ph.D., a chemist at Kyoto Women's University in Kyoto, Japan has come up with a possible solution to this problem. H. pylori depends on a protein called urease to attach and infect the lining of the stomach. Hatta and colleagues decided to use this fact in an effort to solve the problem. They made a “vaccine” to the urease protein by injecting the protein into some chickens, whose immune systems then made antibodies, called IgY-urease. The researchers were able to take this antibody from the chicken eggs and put it into a delicious yogurt, theorizing that eating this simple yogurt would have the same effects as the more expensive treatment of antibiotics and acid suppressants.
Testing their theory, the scientists gathered 42 people that tested positive for H. pylori and divided them into a control group and a test group. The control group was given 2 cups of regular yogurt daily for four weeks, while the test group was given yogurt containing the antibody just as often. The scientists qualified the success of their experiment based on the levels of urea in the test subjects. They looked at levels of urea because it is a by-product of urease. Lower levels of urease would indicate decreased activity of bacteria. As they had hoped, the control group had higher levels of urea than the test group, indicating that the yogurt with the antibody was successful in inhibiting the bacterium from working with the urease protein to damage the stomach wall. The acidic environment of the stomach eventually killed the antibody, but not before it effected the protein-bacterium interaction.
If integrated into regular dietary routine, this yogurt could effectively lower the presence of H. pylori, thus reducing the prevalence of stomach ulcers in an economical way.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47131
Staci Jessen 502
posted by Staci at 12:31 PM
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