Helicobacter pylori and Colorectal Cancer Risk—Letter

Impact of Helicobacter pylori-Related Metabolic Syndrome Parameters on Arterial Hypertension

Arterial hypertension is a risk factor for several pathologies, mainly including cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, which rank as leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Arterial hypertension also constitutes a fundamental component of the metabolic syndrome. Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the most common types of chronic infection globally and displays a plethora of both gastric and extragastric effects. Among other entities, Helicobacter pylori has been implicated in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome. Within this review, we illustrate the current state-of-the-art evidence, which may link several components of the Helicobacter pylori-related metabolic syndrome, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and arterial hypertension. In particular, current knowledge of how Helicobacter pylori exerts its virulence through dietary, inflammatory and metabolic pathways will be discussed. Although there is still no causative link between these entities, the emerging evidence from both basic and clinical research supports the proposal that several components of the Helicobacter pylori infection-related metabolic syndrome present an important risk factor in the development of arterial hypertension. The triad of Helicobacter pylori infection, the metabolic syndrome, and hypertension represents a crucial worldwide health problem on a pandemic scale with high morbidity and mortality, like COVID-19, thereby requiring awareness and appropriate management on a global scale.

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.