A concept of Helicobacter pylori and stress-secreted mast cells' potential involvement in brain metastases

A potential impact of Helicobacter pylori-related galectin-3 in neurodegeneration

Neurodegeneration represents a component of the central nervous system (CNS) diseases pathogenesis, either as a disability primary source in the frame of prototype neurodegenerative disorders, or as a secondary effect, following inflammation, hypoxia or neurotoxicity. Galectins are members of the lectin superfamily, a group of endogenous glycan-binding proteins, able to interact with glycosylated receptors expressed by several immune cell types. Glycan-lectin interactions play critical roles in the living systems by involving and mediating a variety of biologically important normal and pathological processes, including cell-cell signaling shaping cell communication, proliferation and migration, immune responses and fertilization, host-pathogen interactions and diseases such as neurodegenerative disorders and tumors. This review focuses in the role of Galectin-3 in shaping responses of the immune system against microbial agents, and concretely, Helicobacter pylori (Hp), thereby potentiating effect of the microbe in areas distant from the ordinary site of colonization, like the CNS. We hereby postulate that gastrointestinal Hp alterations in terms of immune cell functional phenotype, cytokine and chemokine secretion, may trigger systemic responses, thereby conferring implications for remote processes susceptible in immunity disequilibrium, namely, the CNS inflammation and/or neurodegeneration.

Impact of Helicobacter pylori on multiple sclerosis-related clinically isolated syndrome

OBJECTIVES

There are no data regarding the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection (Hp-I) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the association between active Hp-I, confirmed by histology, and CIS and to evaluate the impact of Hp eradication on the CIS clinical course.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We conducted a study on 48 patients with CIS and 20 matched controls. At baseline, apart from histology, serum anti-Hp-specific IgG titer, inflammatory mediators, and HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-DR genetic polymorphisms were estimated. Hp-positive patients received standard triple eradication regimen, and all patients were followed up for 2 years.

RESULTS

The prevalence of Hp-I was significantly higher in patients with CIS (43/48, 89.6%) than in control (10/20, 50%) (P < 0.001, OR: 8.6, 95% CI: 2.4-30.8). When compared with controls, patients with CIS also showed significantly higher serum anti-Hp IgG titer and HLA-A26, HLA-A30, and HLA-B57 frequencies. Hp-positive patients also showed higher serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines and homocysteine. At 2-year clinical endpoint, in the subgroup of CIS patients with successful Hp eradication, the number of patients who presented with a second episode was significantly lower accompanied by significant improvement in mean Expanded Disability Status Scale score.

CONCLUSIONS

Hp-I seems more frequent in a Greek CIS cohort and its eradication might delay CIS progression, suggesting a possible link between Hp-I and CIS.

From the "little brain" gastrointestinal infection to the "big brain" neuroinflammation: a proposed fast axonal transport pathway involved in multiple sclerosis

The human central nervous system (CNS) is targeted by different pathogens which, apart from pathogens' intranasal inoculation or trafficking into the brain through infected blood cells, may use a distinct pathway to bypass the blood-brain barrier by using the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) retrograde axonal transport through sensory or motor fibres. The recent findings regarding the enteric nervous system (often called the "little brain") similarities with CNS and GIT axonal transport of infections resulting in CNS neuroinflammation are mainly reviewed in this article. We herein propose that the GIT is the vulnerable area through which pathogens (such as Helicobacter pylori) may influence the brain and induce multiple sclerosis pathologies, mainly via the fast axonal transport by the afferent neurones connecting the GIT to brain.