background: helicobacter pylori (h. pylori) cytotoxin and its heterogeneity amongst strains has been closely linked to the varying infection-associated clinical outcomes. in order to determine the decisive role of the vacuolating cytotoxin (vaca) gene mosaicism in its corresponding gene expression and phenotype, we aimed to characterize vaca alleles of different h. pylori strains in addition to...

The prevalence of clarithromycin resistance-associated mutations, the cytotoxin-associated gene (cagA), and the various vacuolating cytotoxin (vacA) genotypes was determined in 50 gastric biopsy specimens from Helicobacter pylori-infected patients, using line probe assays. The clarithromycin resistance-associated mutation A2143G was detected in H. pylori strains from 26% of the specimens, which...

The gram negative, microaerophilic bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human gastric mucosa and establishes a chronic infection that is tightly associated with atrophic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and gastric carcinoma. Cloning of the H. pylori cytotoxin gene shows that the protein is synthesized as a 140-kD precursor that is processed to a 94-kD fully active toxin. Oral administration to ...

Specific gene functions have been successfully suppressed by gene silencing or editing in many organisms. However, genetic manipulation to suppress the function of a target tissue has not been achieved using genes such as cytotoxin family members. We established transgenic silkworms with posterior silk glands (PSGs) that express the enzymatic domain of the cytotoxin pierisin-1A (P1A), a recentl...

Using an in vitro cytotoxicity assay based on the release of 51Cr from cultured porcine thoracic aortic and pulmonary arterial endothelial cells, we have demonstrated that cotton bracts tannin is a potent endothelial cell cytotoxin. It produces dose-dependent lethal injury to both types of endothelial cells with the aortic cells being somewhat more sensitive to tannin-mediated injury than the p...

The interrelationship between cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA), vacuolating cytotoxin (VacA), and Helicobacter pylori-related diseases was investigated in 155 H. pylori-infected patients. Four (7%) of 60 subjects had mixed cagA+ and cagA- H. pylori infections. The H. pylori isolates from 98.3% of 121 patients with anti-CagA antibodies were cagA+. The occurrence of cagA+ H. pylori among 76 pat...