>Then they would find someone who had already bought the bacterium, swab their teeth with a q-tip, and apply it to their own teeth.
This is a bad idea since it might spread saliva-borne pathogens (for example cytomegalovirus, HSV, Neisseria meningitidis, etc). As a better idea, swab their teeth, plate the swab onto agar dishes, and isolate bacterial colonies. (To make this more effective you could add mutacin-1140 so only resistant bacteria will grow, although this is not strictly necessary). Then pick the colonies and test them to see if they are the correct bacteria. Finally, put the correct bacteria in people's mouths.
Anyway, someone with basic microbiology skills could easily pirate this product.
Also, regarding Zbiotics: lots of people used them at my lab retreat in 2022. They still ended up with hangovers, but given the amount of drinking that happened I'm not sure how much the probiotics realistically could have done. I wish we had organized a randomized trial.
Even easier: since they ship you a sample of the bacteria to apply in the first place, growing more of it from that initial sample would presumably be pretty trivial, and saves to hassle of identifying/isolating it from a mouth sample.
That's just the first treatment (and just for the Prospera trial). Prospera patients can get additional culture to [re]apply later, and the site suggests the commercial product will also be an at-home treatment.
>Then they would find someone who had already bought the bacterium, swab their teeth with a q-tip, and apply it to their own teeth.
This is a bad idea since it might spread saliva-borne pathogens (for example cytomegalovirus, HSV, Neisseria meningitidis, etc). As a better idea, swab their teeth, plate the swab onto agar dishes, and isolate bacterial colonies. (To make this more effective you could add mutacin-1140 so only resistant bacteria will grow, although this is not strictly necessary). Then pick the colonies and test them to see if they are the correct bacteria. Finally, put the correct bacteria in people's mouths.
Anyway, someone with basic microbiology skills could easily pirate this product.
(Also, I previously wrote about the topic on my blog, but Scott's post has more info than mine. https://denovo.substack.com/p/stomach-ulcers-and-dental-cavities )
Also, regarding Zbiotics: lots of people used them at my lab retreat in 2022. They still ended up with hangovers, but given the amount of drinking that happened I'm not sure how much the probiotics realistically could have done. I wish we had organized a randomized trial.
Thanks, I've mentioned this in the post.
Even easier: since they ship you a sample of the bacteria to apply in the first place, growing more of it from that initial sample would presumably be pretty trivial, and saves to hassle of identifying/isolating it from a mouth sample.
Do they ship it? I thought they just put it in your mouth in Prospera.
That's just the first treatment (and just for the Prospera trial). Prospera patients can get additional culture to [re]apply later, and the site suggests the commercial product will also be an at-home treatment.