Disinfection of endoscopes from Helicobacter pylori-positive subjects: evaluation of the effectiveness of the Chinese Calijing disinfection kit

Helicobacter pylori outer membrane vesicles involvement in the infection development and Helicobacter pylori-related diseases

Helicobacter pylori - (H. pylori) play a role in the pathogenesis of gastritis, gastric and duodenal ulcers as well as gastric cancer. A possible involvement of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) produced by H. pylori in the distribution of bacterial antigens through the gastric epithelial barrier and their role in the development of local and systemic host inflammatory and immune responses has been suggested. OMVs contain various biologically active compounds, which internalize into host cells affecting signaling pathways and promoting apoptosis of gastric epithelial and immunocompetent cells. OMVs-associated H. pylori virulence factors may strengthen or downregulate the immune responses leading to disease development. This review describes the biological importance of H. pylori OMVs and their role in the course of H. pylori infections, as well as H. pylori related local and systemic effects.

A new model for the transmission of Helicobacter pylori: role of environmental reservoirs as gene pools to increase strain diversity

Twenty-five years after the first successful cultivation and isolation of Helicobacter pylori, the scientific community is still struggling to understand the way(s) this bacterium is transmitted among the human population. Here, both epidemiologic and microbiologic evidence addressing this matter is reviewed and explored to conclude that most H. pylori successful colonizations are derived from direct person-to-person contact and that even though exposure of humans to H. pylori from environmental sources is a very common event, in most occasions the host is able to fight off infection. In addition, under a new model developed here, we propose that the near elimination of environmental reservoirs is the main responsible for the lower prevalence observed in the more industrialized countries by acting on two levels: by decreasing the number of direct infections and by diminishing the number of intraspecies recombination events for producing strain variation within H. pylori.