The Helicobacter pylori vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA) is an intracellular, mitochondrial-targeting exotoxin that rapidly causes mitochondrial dysfunction and fragmentation. Although VacA targeting of mitochondria has been reported to alter overall cellular metabolism, there little known about the consequences extended exposure toxin. Here, we describe studies address this gap in knowledge, which...

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection induces inflammation of the gastric mucosa, which may progress to precancerous lesions leading to gastric cancer. Pathological determinism is associated to some virulence genes of the bacterium, notably the vacA and cagA genes. The present study aimed to determine the H. pylori genotypes distribution and their association with sex, age and gastric disea...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the prevalence of more virulent H. pylori genotypes in relatives of gastric cancer patients and in patients without family histories of gastric cancer. METHODS We evaluated prospectively the prevalence of the infection by more virulent H. pylori strains in 60 relatives of gastric cancer patients comparing the results with those obtained from 49 patients without family h...

Helicobacter pylori produces a vacuolating cytotoxin, VacA, and most virulent H. pylori strains secrete VacA. VacA binds to two types of receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP), RPTPalpha and RPTPbeta, on the surface of host cells. VacA bound to RPTPbeta, relocates and concentrates in lipid rafts in the plasma membrane. VacA causes vacuolization, membrane anion-selective channel and p...

Helicobacter pylori, which is involved in the pathogenesis of gastroduodenal disease, produces CagA and VacA as major virulence factors. CagA is classified into East Asian and Western types based on the number and sequences of its Glu-Pro-Ile-Tyr-Ala motifs. The vacA gene has three polymorphic regions: the signal (s), intermediate (i), and middle (m) regions. The lowest gastric cancer mortality...

Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach and confers an increased risk for the development of peptic ulceration, noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma, and gastric lymphoma. A secreted H. pylori toxin, VacA, can cause multiple alterations in gastric epithelial cells, including cell death. In this study, we sought to identify host cell factors that are required for VacA-induced cell death. To ...

OBJECTIVE To detect antibodies to recombinant vacuolating cytotoxin (r-VacA) of Helicobacter pylori in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). METHODS CSF samples from 13 patients with GBS (electrophysiologically classified as eight acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP), four acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), and one unexcitable...

17 Helicobacter pylori VacA is a secreted pore-forming toxin that is comprised of two 18 domains, designated p33 and p55. The p55 domain has an important role in binding of VacA to 19 the cell surface. About 111 residues at the amino-terminus of p55 (residues 312-422) are 20 essential for the intracellular activity of VacA, which suggests that this region may constitute a 21 subdomain with an a...

helicobacter pylori (h. pylori) plays an important role in the development of peptic and duodenal ulcerations as well as gastric cancer. several studies have shown a strong association between specific genotypes of h. pylori and gastrointestinal tract diseases. the vaca and caga genes, which are the putative virulence factors of the bacterium, are important determinants of h. pylori-related dis...

The presence of various numbers of EPIYA tyrosine phosphorylation motifs in the CagA protein of Helicobacter pylori has been suggested to contribute to pathogenesis in adults. In this prospective study, we characterized H. pylori isolates from symptomatic children, with reference to the diversity of functional EPIYA motifs in the CagA protein and vacA isotypes, and assessed the potential correl...