Course Code BIOL1040

Course Title Cells to Organisms

Course Coordinator Dr Prasad Chunduri
Due Date 19/08
Assignment Title Will Consuming Bacteria Be The Future Of
Vaccinations?
Word Count 778
Date Submitted 19/08

Extension applied for No Revised Date

Student Number Surname First Name
43563267 Naidoo Keirav
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
Will Consuming Bacteria
Be The Future Of
Vaccinations?
BIOL1040: Cells to Organisms





Name: Keirav Naidoo
Student No: 43563267
Assessment Task 1: Personal Response
CD Track / Trigger: Track 1 / Eating Bacteria
As a Vaccine
Submitted: 19 August 2014
Word Count: 778
Confidential Page 3 8/19/2014
The Widely Unknown Prevalence of Bacteria Within Us!
A lesser known fact to the general public is that bacteria, also known as germs make up a huge
portion of our bodies. In fact, bacterial cells outnumber our own human cells 10 to 1 in the
average adult. Surprisingly, bacteria play positive roles in various parts of the body, such as
supporting the immune system.
One of the scientists who are currently investigating bacteria is Barry Marshall, a researcher at
the QE2 medical centre. Marshall was interviewed by Doctor Chris Smith on the 30
th
of October
2010 on ABC radio. The interview covered a bacterium found in the stomach called Helicobacter
as well as Marshalls innovative research into using this bacterium as a possible means for
vaccination.
Research Into The Helicobacter Bacterium
In the early 1980s Marshalls friend Doctor Warren introduced him to the Helicobacter
bacterium that he had been finding in stomach biopsies. Since it was previously thought that
bacteria were not tough enough to survive in an environment as acidic as the stomach, this
came as a surprise. After hearing about this peculiar finding, Barry started interviewing patients
that had this bacterium and soon enough he started to see a trend in their symptoms. It appeared
that the Helicobacter bacterium caused inflammation of the stomach, also known as gastritis.
This lead Marshall to his Nobel winning discovery that ulcers were actually caused by
Helicobacter in the stomach.
With only the negatives of Helicobacter listed Im sure youre wondering what good this bacteria
is and how it could be used as a vaccine. For starters, researchers have shown that the presence
of Helicobacter in children lowers their risk of developing asthma and eczema by 30%. The
Confidential Page 4 8/19/2014
bacteria achieve this by down-regulating the immune system. That is, by lowering the immune
systems response to a stimulus or trigger.
Barry Marshall is looking into using the consumption of an altered Helicobacter strain as a
possible means for vaccination to various diseases. In order to do this all that needs to be done is
for the viruss gene to be cloned or placed onto the Helicobacter genome (encodes for cell
makeup). This would result in virus particles sticking out of the helicobacter. Since this isnt a
real virus, the virus particles cannot infect the body. Instead, the immune system will simply
respond to the modified helicobacter by producing antibodies that will kill the virus if it entered
your body. This means that you are now vaccinated and within 8 weeks the ingested
Helicobacter will all be dead, leaving a clean stomach. Amazingly, creating this altered
Helicobacter takes only two weeks.
Why Helicobacter? In order for the vaccine to be effective, the bacteria need to be able to survive
the acidic environment of the stomach. Since Helicobacter is often found on the stomach lining it
is known that it can survive inside the stomach. But what about the ulcer causing side effects on
the stomach you ask? Well this has been thought of too. Helicobacter causes ulcers and gastritis
through specific toxins that are released in the stomach. The process to obtaining Helicobacter
bacteria that doesnt cause ulcers, is simply a matter of isolating strains of Helicobacter that
dont produce these toxins, from people that have the bacteria and yet no symptoms. If
successful, Marshall could create a strain of Helicobacter that when modified will fulfil its role
as a vaccine, without the negative side effects typically prevalent of this bacterium.


Confidential Page 5 8/19/2014
The Benefits & Risks Of A Consumable Bacterial Vaccination
Are you aware of how advantageous bacterial vaccinations would be? Current vaccines are
costly, take long amounts of time to produce and require professionals to administer the
injection. According to Barry Marshall the use of bacteria would allow us to quickly produce
around 200 million doses in as little as 8 weeks if an epidemic were to occur. These doses could
be rapidly dispersed and easily taken through ingestion. This would truly change the way we see
epidemics, since populations could quickly be vaccinated before the diseases infection rate
becomes threatening.
Conversely, modifying bacteria may end disastrously. If quality control were to drop, the use of
bacteria as a vaccination would be rather dangerous. One reason for this is that bacteria have a
substantially high mutation rate during reproduction. Because of this high mutation rate, without
stringent monitoring bacteria could end up with mutated structures that are harmful to humans.
This could catastrophically result in strains of hardy bacteria that spread from the stomach to the
rest of body causing various diseases.
Ultimately, only time will tell whether this project will be successful, or if playing god will result
in serious repercussions.