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In 1984 Australian doctor Barry Marshall drank a culture of Helicobacter pylori bacteria and within days developed gastritis, an inflamed stomach lining. He and pathologist Robin Warren had argued that this bacterium, not stress, lies behind most stomach ulcers.

Nobel Prize

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At the time most doctors believed ulcers came from stress, spicy food and excess stomach acid, and that no bacterium could survive in the acidic stomach. Warren, working in Perth, had been seeing spiral-shaped bacteria in inflamed stomach tissue since 1979; Marshall joined him and managed to grow them in the laboratory. When they could not infect animals, Marshall infected himself, and a biopsy confirmed the bacteria had taken hold. Later clinical trials showed that H. pylori is behind most peptic ulcers, sores in the stomach or the first part of the small intestine, and that antibiotics can cure them for good, whereas acid-reducing drugs only healed them for a while. Marshall and Warren shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Türkçe oku
Avustralyalı hekim Barry Marshall 1984'te Helicobacter pylori bakterisi dolu bir kültürü içti ve birkaç gün içinde gastrite, yani mide zarının iltihaplanmasına yakalandı. Marshall ile patolog Robin Warren, mide ülserlerinin çoğunun ardında stresin değil bu bakterinin olduğunu savunuyordu.

O yıllarda hekimlerin çoğu ülserin stresten, baharatlı yemeklerden ve fazla mide asidinden kaynaklandığına, asitli midede hiçbir bakterinin yaşayamayacağına inanıyordu. Perth'te çalışan Warren, 1979'dan beri iltihaplı mide dokusunda sarmal biçimli bakteriler görüyordu; Marshall ona katıldı ve bu bakterileri laboratuvarda üretmeyi başardı. Hayvanlarda hastalık oluşturamayınca Marshall bakteriyi kendisi içti; alınan doku örneği bakterinin mideye yerleştiğini doğruladı. Sonraki klinik araştırmalar, mide ya da onikiparmak bağırsağında açılan yaralar olan peptik ülserlerin çoğunun ardında H. pylori bulunduğunu ve antibiyotiklerin ülseri kalıcı olarak iyileştirdiğini, asit azaltan ilaçların ise yalnızca geçici bir iyileşme sağladığını gösterdi. Marshall ve Warren 2005 Nobel Fizyoloji veya Tıp Ödülü'nü paylaştı.

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Background reading: Barry Marshall
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