title: Helicobacter pylori plasticity region genes are associated with the gastroduodenal diseases manifestation in India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Almost all Helicobacter pylori infected person develop gastritis and severe gastritis is supposed to be the denominator of peptic ulcer diseases, which may lead to gastric cancer. However, it is still an enigma why few strains are associated with ulcer formation, while others are not related with any disease outcome. Although a number of putative virulence factors have been reported for H. pylori, there are contradictory results regarding their connotation with diseases. Recently, there has been a significant attention in strain-specific genes outside the cag pathogenicity island, especially genes within plasticity regions. Studies demonstrated that certain genes in this region may play important roles in the pathogenesis of H. pylori-associated diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the role of selected genes (jhp0940, jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949) in the plasticity region in relation to risk of H. pylori-related diseases in Indian population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 113 H. pylori strains isolated from duodenal ulcer (DU) (n = 61) and non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) subjects (n = 52) were screened by PCR and Dot-Blot to determine the presence of these genes. The comparative study of IL-8 production and apoptosis were also done by co-culturing the AGS cells with H. pylori strains of different genotype.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PCR and Dot-Blot results indicated that the prevalence rates of jhp0940, jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949 in the H. pylori strains were 9.8, 47.5, 50.8, 40.9 % and 17.3, 28.8, 26.9, 19.2 % isolated from DU and NUD, respectively. IL-8 production and apoptotic cell death were significantly higher in H. pylori strains containing jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949 than the strains lacking those genes. Results indicated that the prevalence of jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949 are associated with increased risk of severe diseases in India.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that presence of jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949 were significantly associated with symptomatic expressions along with the increased virulence during in vitro study whereas jhp0940 seems to be negatively associated with the disease. These results suggest that jhp0945, jhp0947 and jhp0949 could be useful prognostic markers for the development of duodenal ulcer in India.
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India ; Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Mou
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ganguly
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Sagartirtha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Prachetash
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Avijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Jawed
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Bipul Chandra
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Karmakar
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Ronita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Dhira Rani
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.affiliation: Division of Bacteriology, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P 33, CIT Road, Scheme XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata, 700010 India.
authors.forename: Asish K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
keywords: Apoptosis; Duodenal ulcer; Helicobacter pylori; IL-8; Plasticity region