To understand the biological processes within host cells induced by VacA, isogenic strains of Helicobacter pylori (NCTC 11638 or 11638-˜vacA) were used to stimulate gastric cancer cells SGC7901, and differentially expressed genes in host cells were identified using cDNA microarray technology. More than 300 genes were found to alter their mRNA expression at different time points, among which 68 were related to the cytoskeleton, 87 were associated with cell cycle, cell death and proliferation, IL8 expression was also found to be up-regulated. Cells co-cultured with broth-culture supernatant (BCS) of NCTC 11638 showed more alteration in microtubule cytoskeleton morphology, as observed by laser scanning confocal microscopy, and a lower apoptosis rate, detected by flow cytometry, compared with those co-cultured with BCS of 11638-˜vacA. The supernatants of cells co-cultured with NCTC 11638 showed significantly higher IL8 expression than those co-cultured with 11638-˜vacA. It is concluded that VacA disrupts cytoskeletal architecture by influencing the expression of cytoskeleton-associated genes. VacA breaks the balance between cell proliferation and cell death by inducing the maladjustment of genes related to cell cycle. VacA is also able to induce the inflammatory response.

According to the facts that the patient has been immunized with HB vaccine and that the serum is anti-HBs positive and HBsAg negative, and based on the nucleotide sequence analysis of the mutant HBV S gene and its alteration of antigenicity, the HBV is considered to be a new vaccine-induced immune escape mutant different from the known ones.