title: Exploiting the Gastric Epithelial Barrier: Helicobacter pylori's Attack on Tight and Adherens Junctions.
abstract: Highly organized intercellular tight and adherens junctions are crucial structural components for establishing and maintenance of epithelial barrier functions, which control the microbiota and protect against intruding pathogens in humans. Alterations in these complexes represent key events in the development and progression of multiple infectious diseases as well as various cancers. The gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori exerts an amazing set of strategies to manipulate these epithelial cell-to-cell junctions, which are implicated in changing cell polarity, migration and invasive growth as well as pro-inflammatory and proliferative responses. This chapter focuses on the H. pylori pathogenicity factors VacA, CagA, HtrA and urease, and how they can induce host cell signaling involved in altering cell-to-cell permeability. We propose a stepwise model for how H. pylori targets components of tight and adherens junctions in order to disrupt the gastric epithelial cell layer, giving fresh insights into the pathogenesis of this important bacterium.
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Biology, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Staudtstr. 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany. Steffen.Backert@fau.de.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Backert
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Molecular Biology, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Billroth Str. 11, 5020, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Biology, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Staudtstr. 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Aileen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrer
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology, Department of Molecular Biology, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Billroth Str. 11, 5020, Salzburg, Austria. Silja.Wessler@sbg.ac.at.
authors.forename: Silja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wessler
mesh_terms: D022005:Adherens Junctions / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013270:Stomach / Q000382:microbiology*; D019108:Tight Junctions / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors
keywords: Adherens junction; CagA; E-cadherin; Epithelial barrier; HtrA serine protease; Protease; Tight junction; Type IV secretion T4SS; UreA; VacA