Helicobacter Pylori Gastric Ulcers and Cancer
Stomach Pathogen or Immune Regulator? Helicobacter pylori (Hp) has co-evolved with the human stomach. Hp has always been passed from mother to child as the child started premasticated solid foods. The advent of processed baby foods and antibiotics has eliminated Hp in 90% of the US population and coincides with a dramatic rise of allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases (commonly explained by the hygiene hypothesis.) Hp Is Stomach-Adapted Hp is adapted for growth in an acidic environment. It produces ammonia to neutralize stomach acid. It also provided me with great perplexity in searching for heparin-binding domains in Hp proteins suspected of binding to stomach epithelial cells. I generalized that pathogens must have proteins on their surfaces that bind to the heparan sulfate proteoglycans of epithelial cells. I checked candidate Hp proteins and found histidines where I expected to find basic amino acids, either lysine or arginine. The “duh” momen...