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Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00434-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Serological assays to identify human gastric colonization by VacA m1 or m2 Helicobacter pylori strains

Department of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii; Division of Gastroenterology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New York, New York, USA

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: perezg02{at}popmail.med.nyu.edu.

	Abstract

The Helicobacter pylori vacA gene encodes a secreted protein (VacA) that alters the function of gastric epithelial cells and T lymphocytes. H. pylori strains containing particular vacA alleles are associated with differential risk of disease. Because the VacA mid-region may exist as one of two major types, m1 or m2, serologic responses may potentially be used to differentiate between patients colonized with vacA m1 or vacA m2-positive H. pylori strains. In this study, we examined the utility of specific antigens from the m-regions of VacA as allele-specific diagnostic antigens. We report that serological responses to P44M1, an H. pylori m1-specific antigen, are observed predominantly in patients colonized with m1-positive strains, whereas responses to VacA m2 antigens, P48M2 and P55M2, are observed in patients colonized with either m1- or m2-positive strains. In an Asian-American population, serologic responses to VacA m-region-specific antigens were not able to predict the risk of development of gastric cancer.