Molecular Mechanisms of Helicobacter pylori Pathogenesis

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori infects 50% of mankind. The vast majority of H. pylori infection occurs in the developing countries where up to 80% of the middle-aged adults may be infected. Bacterial infection causes an inflammatory response that proceeds through a series of intermediated stages of precancerous lesions (gastritis, atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and dysplasia). Among infected individuals, approximately 10% develops severe gastric lesions such as peptic ulcer disease, 1-3% progresses to gastric cancer (GC) with a low 5-year survival rate, and 0.1% develops mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT). GC is one of the most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. In this review, we have summarized the most recent papers about molecular mechanisms of H. pylori pathogenesis. The main important steps of H. pylori infection such as adhesion, entry in epithelial gastric cells, activation of intracellular pathways until epigenetic modifications have been described.