H. pylori, Gastritis & Astaxanthin
Balancing the Immune response to GI Infections
A recent article caught my attention as it drew me into a past passion and research breakthrough and combined it with a more recent nutritional focus of mine. In essence it allows me to address some old issues that to this day remain blurry for some - the role of H. pylori infections and gastric cancer - and emphasize more recent nutritional advice and explanations that relate to oxidative stress, immunity and the friendly fire that sometimes accompanies an activated immune response.
The latter may ring bells for some, as we face the friendly fire-induced tissue damage that accompanies an activated immune system trying to rid ourselves of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But let’s leave that to the side and focus on chronic gastritis resulting from the pesky bacteria Helicobacter pylori, and what can we do about it.
Firstly, you have to admire the evolutionary tricks developed that allow H. pylori to live in stomachs. After all it is not the friendliest of homes! This bacteria developed several techniques to survive in this harsh environment of living within the stomach whose primary purpose is to KILL INGESTED BACTERIA. The tricks that H. pylori developed include:
the ability to surround itself in a fume of ammonia to neutralize the acid produced by the stomach
A decision to live only in the mucus layer lining the stomach. There is no intent to invade the host (rather just hang out).
And weird corkscrew flagella to help it navigate around in the stomach mucus where it swims like a deranged kite.
While the host immune system knows of the presence of H. pylori the immune cells physically cannot get to it. All host immune cells die from the acid when attempting to to reach the bacteria. Their only option is to throw chemical bombs at the bacteria and hope they will move on, but the bacteria are out of reach and the chemical bombs just cause damage to the mucosa in a classic case of friendly fire Inducible Nitric Oxide, Immune response to H. pylori . Note that infection related cancers share this friendly fire conundrum e.g., HPV & cervical cancer and Hepatitis C & liver cancer.
When I was studying the progression of clinical gastric cancer and gastritis in response to H. pylori infections I posed the question as to whether one class of these “chemical bombs”, the nitrogen oxides that come from nitric oxide and can lead to a variety of dangerous chemicals including peroxynitrite, the smog molecules (NO2 and N2O3) and nitrosamines, could be driving the tissue damage causing atrophic gastritis and then onto gastric cancer. Relate to that, could one suppress or terminate this progression through the use of dietary antioxidants. In regards to the latter, we used in very detailed and long clinical trials using vitamin C and beta-carotene as the antioxidant interventions. We were successful in demonstrating the sustained dietary supplementation with vitamin C suppressed the development of atrophic gastritis (the anatomical precursor to gastric cancer) Vitamin C suppresses Gastric Cancer via Nitrogen Oxides
Nevertheless, there are other approaches I favor from a mechanistic & potency point of view. One of my true favorites is the xanthophyll (chemical parents of carotenoids) called Astaxanthin. This is the red/orange pigment that is responsible for the color of salmon and the shells of crab, lobster, shrimp etc. The natural origin is a single cell algae called Haematococcus pluvialis, that generates large amounts of astaxanthin, and by doing so turns from green to red, in response to environmental stressors.
The recent publication by Han et al (Astaxanthin Suppresses the Development of Gastric Cancer ) showed in mice how this powerful antioxidant can suppress the damage caused by H. pylori to the gastric mucosa, and the oncogenic response to the infection. While this study was done in mice, and our research some decades ago was done in long duration clinical trials, the concepts are aligned.
The basic tenant is this. With an infection that is hard to resolve there is a chronic inflammation driven by an immune response that is frustrated and throws out chemical bombs in the form of oxidants and nitrogen oxides. Negating this overly exuberant immune response, with powerful antioxidants like astaxanthin, can limit this friendly fire, limit the damage and prevent the progression into a full blown cancer state.
While astaxanthin is hard to get in the diet, it does provide a perfect case for dietary supplementation based on these actions and others. Nature offers some magnificent therapeutic opportunities, you just need to be aware of the actions, and match need with intervention and where necessary dietary supplementation.