Combined serum IgG response to Helicobacter pylori VacA and CagA predicts gastric cancer

Helicobacter pylori is a major factor for the development of gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to define serum antibody patterns associated with H. pylori infection in patients with gastric cancer using a Western blot technique. Serum samples collected from 115 patients with gastric cancer and 110 age- and gender-matched patients without gastrointestinal diseases were tested for IgG antibodies to H. pylori antigens (outer membrane proteins and whole cell preparations). No significant differences were found between patients with and without gastric cancer using outer membrane proteins (82% and 73%, P>0.05) or whole cell antigens (84% and 76%, P>0.05), respectively. The significant differences between patients with and without gastric cancer were associated with bands of 94 kDa (54% and 20%, P<0.001) and 30 kDa (65% and 44%, P<0.01). A combination of antibodies to 85 kDa (VacA) and 120 kDa (CagA) was significantly (P<0.01) more frequent in gastric cancer patients than in patients without gastric cancer. The detection of antibodies to 94- and 30-kDa bands, in association with the determination of serum antibodies to CagA+/VacA+, may have a prospective value in assessment of the risk of developing of gastric cancer.

What Bizzozero never could imagine - Helicobacter pylori today and tomorrow

With the observation of spiral organism in the stomach about one hundred years ago a long history of a bacterium started ending up in a worldwide research programs, studies and consensuses. With this bacterium rediscovered by Marshall and Warren and later named Helicobacter pylori, a milestone of research was laid nearly twenty years ago. Helicobacter pylori is now recognized as the main cause of most cases of gastritis and ulcer disease in the stomach and the duodenum. In the course of the Helicobacter pylori research, Helicobacter pylori was found to trigger neoplastic alterations on the ground of the inflammation in the stomach. At first, a large number of publications served to describe the connection between Helicobacter pylori and the low malignant B-cell lymphoma of the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) of the stomach. Furthermore, on the basis of numerous seroepidemiological studies, researchers succeeded in documenting the participation of H. pylori, at least as a co-factor, in the development of gastric carcinoma. From large epidemiological studies made during the last twenty years as well as from microbiological research we have learned much more about this in the beginning nameless and mysterious bacterium.

Helicobacter pylori antibodies and gastric cancer: a gender-related difference

Helicobacter pylori has been proposed as a causative agent of gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to define serum antibodies response against different H. pylori antigens in patients with gastric cancer. Serum samples were collected from 115 Lithuanian patients with non-cardia gastric cancer and 110 age- and sex-matched controls without cancer. Heat-stable, low-molecular-mass, and outer membrane proteins were used as antigens to analyze serum IgG antibody response against H. pylori by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Seroprevalence of H. pylori using low-molecular-mass antigen was significantly higher in gastric cancer patients, compared to controls (77% versus 57%, p<0.05). Significant differences in the prevalence of H. pylori infection between gastric cancer patients and controls were found in females using all three studied antigens: heat-stable (98% versus 84%, p<0.05), low-molecular-mass (88% versus 48%, p<0.05) and outer membrane proteins (78% versus 57%, p<0.05). In males, no significant differences were revealed between gastric cancer patients and controls. There may be other cofactors in addition to H. pylori that are important for the development of gastric cancer. H. pylori seems, however, to be a more important for development of gastric cancer in females than in males or males may have more confounding risk factors for gastric cancer than females.

Gastric inflammatory markers and interleukins in patients with functional dyspepsia, with and without Helicobacter pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori is the most important cause of gastritis, peptic ulcers and the development of gastric cancer. The chronic active inflammation is dominated by neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes and plasma cells. Several interleukins (IL-8, IL-10 and IFN-gamma) are involved in the inflammatory process in the gastric mucosa. The aim of this study was to investigate the gastric inflammation in patients with functional dyspepsia. Fifty-three consecutive patients were included and antral biopsies were obtained for histology, culture and immunohistochemistry. The sections were examined for the interleukins IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and IFN-gamma as well as for the cell markers CD4, CD8, CD14, Cd19, CD25 and CD30. Only CD4 and CD19 were significantly increased in patients with increased gastric inflammation and increased density of H. pylori. However, several of the examined markers (IFN-gamma, IL-8, IL-10 and CD14) showed a non-significant trend to be increased in patients with extensive gastric inflammation and high density of H. pylori. Therefore, an arbitrary index (IM11) for all the 11 immunological markers was made as an average value for each of the four morphological groups. For the four morphologically different groups of patients the values were 0.49, 0.77, 0.86 and 1.25, respectively. Significant increases in the index from none to moderate antral inflammation as well as the density of H. pylori were found (p<0.001). By using an index of inflammatory markers trends can be summarized and thereby significant which may be of importance when gastric inflammation is investigated in children and patients with functional dyspepsia.