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The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori reduces the risk of bronchial asthma
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The bacterium Helicobacter pylori re-educates the host's immune system so that it stops attacking the bacterium itself, and at the same time the cells of the respiratory tract, which significantly reduces the likelihood of developing bronchial asthma.
The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori has long been blamed for causing a range of dangerous diseases, from stomach ulcers to cancer. Finally, drastic steps have been taken to rid the world of this dangerous and very common bacteria.
Indeed, after H. pylori was declared war, stomach cancer statistics in Europe and North America began to decline. But at the same time, asthma cases increased. The connection between the bacterium and asthma became increasingly obvious, but no one was able to demonstrate the specific mechanisms of H. pylori's influence on the immune system.
The cause of asthma is that the immune system begins to attack the cells of the respiratory system, which is expressed in inflammation and narrowing of the airways. Researchers from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) have managed to show how intestinal bacteria teach the immune system tolerance and prudence.
Two types of immune T cells determine the strength of the immune response: some stimulate inflammation, while others, T-regulators, inhibit it. The adequacy of the immune system depends on the balance between them. Asthma begins to develop when there are more "hawks". An article published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation says that H. pylori reprograms dendritic immune cells so that the immune system does not touch H. pylori itself. Obviously, H. pylori acts in its own interests, but the host also benefits from this. Dendritic cells shift the balance of T cells in favor of T-regulators. As a result, the immune system loses its pathological vigilance, and it stops attacking its own.
People who have H. pylori in their stomachs will not necessarily get cancer, but they are guaranteed to be protected from asthma. It is believed that this bacterium behaves well and even brings benefits as long as nothing disturbs it. However, many scientists believe that it is too capricious a symbiont for the benefits from it to outweigh the harm it can cause. In the modern world, we are constantly exposed to various stresses, and it is unlikely that today it is possible to maintain a good relationship with a wayward bacterium for the rest of your life. And getting rid of asthma, only to get cancer later, does not seem like such an equivalent replacement.
Researchers are already working to identify the substance that H. pylori uses to retrain the immune system, so that we can protect ourselves from asthma without having to ingest this very conditionally beneficial symbiont.
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