Helicobacter pylori - a seasoned pathogen by any other name

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori is a well known inhabitant of human stomach which is linked to peptic ulcer disease and gastric adenocarcinoma. It was recently shown in several studies that H. pylori can be harnessed as a surrogate marker of human migration and that its population structure and stratification patterns exactly juxtapose to those of Homo sapiens. This is enough a testimony to convey that H. pylori may have coevolved with their host. Several protective effects of H. pylori colonization have been considered as evidence of a presumed symbiotic relationship. Contrary to this assumption is the presence of a strong virulence apparatus within H. pylori; why a co-evolved parasite would try inflicting its host with serious infection and even causing cancer? The answer is perhaps embedded in the evolutionary history of both the bacterium and the host. We discuss a hypothetical scenario wherein H. pylori may have acquired virulence genes from donors within its environment that varied with change in human history and ecology. The H. pylori genomes sequenced to date portray fairly high abundance of such laterally acquired genes which have no assigned functions but could be linked to inflammatory responses or other pathogenic attributes. Therefore, the powerful virulence properties and survival strategies of Helicobacter make it a seasoned pathogen; thus the efforts to portray it as a commensal or a (harmless) 'bacterial parasite' need rethinking.

Phylogeographic Origin of Helicobacter pylori Determines Host-Adaptive Responses upon Coculture with Gastric Epithelial Cells

“…Due to the plasticity of its genome and its capacity to acquire genes from bacterial donors in the environment, H. pylori has developed an extensive array of defense mechanisms and virulence factors that permit its survival in the harsh gastric environment (8,51). However, environmental pressures, such as diet or coinfection with parasites, may have driven H. pylori strains on divergent evolutionary paths regarding virulence.…”

Association of smoking, alcohol and NSAIDs use with expression of cag A and cag T genes of Helicobacter pylori in salivary samples of asymptomatic subjects

“…Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), termed as class I carcinogen by World Health Organization, is a worldwide menace with the ability to transform gastric lesions into a carcinogenic lymphoma [1][2][3] . It has been studied in depth by many workers proving its disease causing potential to be immense [4,5] .…”

Association between Acute Coronary Syndrome and Helicobacter Pylori Chronic Infection? What data mining tells us?

“…In order to describe the involvement of H. pylori in the development of CHD, it is necessary to find the largest number of reliable research studies; big data confirming this relationship. For our knowledge there is no study have used data mining analysis of such big data related ACS and Pylori, that artificial intelligence of Rapid I used in the current study can find the accurate or possible situation associations, hence according to our results only ACS of long duration of intermittent typical chest pain may becaused by Pylori chronic infection [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Data mining is the breakthrough in economy, biology, trading, business, astronomy and medicine [21][22][23].…”