Helicobacter pylori infected Lebanese patients and its effect on epithelial cells invasiveness

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori is the leading cause of gastric cancer worldwide. Infecting more than 50% of the population, scientists are still studying its mysterious mechanisms behind its genetics and pathogenesis in infecting and invading hosts’ epithelium. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of H. pylori in the Lebanese population in patients aged 18 years and above, and to explore the effect of Cag A on gap junctions’ disruption and hence its contributing role to epithelial cells’ invasiveness. For this reason, 47 gastric biopsies were collected with the help of our collaborator in Hôpital Français du Levant: Dr. Antoine Geagea (Gastroenterologist, Hepatologist). Patients were asked to fill a questionnaire and sign an informed consent. Samples taken from the corpus and the antrum were analyzed through their extracted DNA, RNA and proteins. The prevalence of H. pylori was 19.3%, with a higher infection rate seen in females than in males. In addition, all samples positive for H. pylori showed a negative Cag A genotype. However, many Vac A subtypes were detected whereby each type is correlated to a different level of pathogenicity ranging from no cytotoxic activity to development of gastric cancer. Further studies are required to assess the role of Vac A in inducing gap junctions’ disruption and pathogenesis leading to gastric cancer.