Abstract

Background:Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) is the causative agent for upper gastrointestinal diseases. The presence of thecagA, at least with one repeat of EPIYA-C, and thevacAwith s1-i1 polymorphisms are likely to be associated with increased gastric cancer risk.Aim:The aim of study was to determine the genotype ofcagAandvacAand their usefulness as a predictive factor in upper gastrointestinal patients in Ilam, Iran.Methods:In this study, out of 168 biopsies, 109H. pyloriwere isolated from different upper gastrointestinal patients and confirmed with molecular and biochemical tests. Chromosomal DNA bacteria was extracted and used as PCR templete to determine both thecagAEPIYA motifs andvacApolymorphism (s, i and m).Results:Our data showed that the prevalence ofcagAgene is high in patients with gastrointestinal diseases (76.1). The prevalence ofvacAs1 was the highest with the percentage frequency of 85.3, followed by i (71.5) and m (68.8). We demonstrated that the percentage of A, B, AB, AC, ABC and ABCC were 28.9 (24/83), 3.6 (3/83), 28.9 (24/83), 12.04 (10/83), 16.8 (14/83) and 9.6 (8/83), respectively. Interestingly, there was an important difference of the presence of EPIYA-C motif between PUD and gastritis groups (P< 0.001). There was a significant relationship between the presence ofvacAi and EPIYA-C, at least with one repeat (P= 0.002).Conclusions:We performed the firstcagA-EPIYA andvacAgenotyping ofH. pylorifrom Western Iran in relation to gasteroduodenal diseases. The present study showed that the presence ofvacAi1 withcagA-EPIYA-C could be assumed as a predictive factor for PUD in our area.