14 DAY TRIAL // Infections with a stomach bacterium known to the scientific community as Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori, for short) can sometimes translate into duodenal ulcers and even cancer.
Scientists speaking at this week's Society for General Microbiology Autumn Conference argue that this bacterium species has such an easy time setting up camp inside an individual's stomach and thriving in its mucosal lining due to the fact that it turns off the immune system.
More precisely, it suppresses the production of an antimicrobial factor known as “human beta defensin 1,” EurekaAlert reports.
Tissue biopsies collected from 54 different patients have shown that those who had the largest population of H. pylori in their stomach also had the lowest levels of said antimicrobial factor.
Specialists say that, presently, some 50% of the world's population house this bacterium inside their stomach.
Merely 1-2% of these people develop stomach cancer. However, because this condition takes some time to diagnose, survival rates are fairly low.