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

ABSTRACT

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