sialic acid binding adhesin [SabA] of Helicobacter pylori isolated from Egypt is associated with gastric cancer

Background: Helicobacter pylori [H. pylori] expressed outer membrane proteins [OMP[s]] that assist in bacterial adherence to the gastric epithelium promoting successful colonization. One of these OMPs is the blood group antigen binding adhesin A [BabA] which bind to the fucosylated Lewis[b] blood group antigen [Le[b]] on the surface of gastric epithelial cells. Another OMP[s] is the sialic acid binding adhesin [SabA] that mediates H. pylori binding the specific sialyl dimeric Lewis[x] glycosphingolipid [Le[x]] on the gastric epithelium. A lot of discrepancies about the correlation between the presence of both babA and sabA genes and the apparent clinical outcome of H. pylori infection were reported

Objectives: The present study was to disclose the relationship between the presence of these genes and the clinical outcomes in Egyptian H. pylori patients

Methodology: Forty three H. pylori strains were isolated from patients with different clinical findings. Polymerase chain reaction [PCR] for detecting the presence of babA and sabA genes was performed using different sets of primers for detecting different regions of the gene. Further bioinformatics analysis for the sabA product was done using KEGG and Pfam websites

Results: evincing striking correlation between sabA presence and the gastric cancer disease. However, we could not find any correlation between presence of babA and the associated diseases

Conclusions: SabA is one of the H. pylori OMPs adhesins involving in increasing the risk of H. pylori associated gastric cancer in H. pylori Egyptian patients

Comparison between the Effects of regular cigarettes smoke and electronic nicotine delivery devices vapor on the pathogenesis of pseudomonas aeruginosa

Pseudomonas aeruginosa [P. aeruginosa] is a Gram-negative pathogen associated with pneumonia, bronchitis, and chronic colonization of the respiratory tract. It easily affected by the environmental inhalant pollutants that may change its virulence and alter the host innate immunity against it. In this study, we aimed to establish the effect of cigarette smoke and electronic nicotine delivery device vapor on the virulence of P. aeruginosa. Bacteria were grown in control media, different concentrations of cigarette smoke exposed media, and range of doses of nicotine vapor exposed media. The growth ability of bacteria, pH change, and the pigment production capability were monitored for each culture. Sensitivities of P. aeruginosa to the reactive oxygen species and to killing by purified human polymorphonuclear neutrophils were established as well as their ability to change their surface charge and their susceptibility to antimicrobial peptides. Smoke exposed P. aeruginosa showed inhibition in their growth in a dose-dependent manner and inhibition of the pyocyanin production whilst the nicotine vapor did not affect their growth kinetics but increased the pigment production dose dependently too. When treated with H2O2, smoke and vapor exposed bacteria had significantly higher survival rates than the control. Where both smoke and vapor exposed cells grew significantly in the presence of human neutrophils while control bacteria were killed, exposure to 75% cigarette smoke showed the higher survival rate. Moreover, cigarette smoke was found to increase P. aeruginosa resistance to the antimicrobial peptides. Consequently, cigarette smoke and electronic nicotine vapor were found to boost P. aeruginosa pathogenesis and virulenc

Structural and functional analysis of hypothetical and conserved proteins of Clostridium tetani

The progress in biological technologies has led to rapid accumulation of microbial genomic sequences with a vast number of uncharacterized genes. Proteins encoded by these genes are usually uncharacterized, hypothetical, and/or conserved. In Clostridium tetani [C. tetani], these proteins constitute up to 50% of the expressed proteins. In this regard, understanding the functions and the structures of these proteins is crucially important, particularly in C. tetani, which is a medically important pathogen. Here, we used a variety of bioinformatics tools and databases to analyze 10 hypothetical and conserved proteins in C. tetani. We were able to provide a detailed overview of the functional contributions of some of these proteins in several cellular functions, including [1] evolving antibiotic resistance, [2] interaction with enzymes pathways, and [3] involvement in drug transportation. Among these candidates, we postulated the involvement of one of these hypothetical proteins in the pathogenic activity of tetanus. The structural and functional prediction of these proteins should serve in uncovering and better understanding the function of C. tetani cells to ultimately discover new possible drug targets