Investigation of vacA status and cagA in patients with peptic ulcer disease

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is one of the most common gastrointestinal infections worldwide. Infection with H. pylori strains may results in different pathological manifestation and increased oxidative stress lead to a strong inflammatory response in gastric mucosa. There is continuing interest in identifying H. pylori virulence factors that might predict the risk for symptomatic clinical outcomes. The prevalence of cagA and vacA genes، proteins and were determined.

The presence of IgG antibody against CagA and VacA proteins was determined by using Western blotting technique. The presence of cagA gene and vacA alleles was examined by PCR. H. pylori-positive patients including PUD and NUD were used for these experiments.

Biopsies were considered as H. pylori-positive and negative when both the rapid urease test and bacterial culture gave positive and negative results respectively. H. pylori-positive، cagA-positive، and vacA alleles (s1 and m2) were predominant in all clinical outcomes. There was no significant association between prevalence of CagA and VacA status and clinical outcomes.

Our results suggest that cagA-positive strains were predominant in patients. However، we found no association between cagA and vacA status and clinical outcomes and this virulence factor is not associated with the development of PUD. In addition، serological tests such as the western blotting are helpful in detecting subjects infected with H. pylori strains in PUD and NUD.