UNAIR NEWS – Helicobacter pylori was first identified by Nobel prize winner Barry Marshal and Robin Warren. Since then, various studies on H. pylori have been carried out by researchers in various parts of the world.
H. pylori infection is one of the health problems in the field of gastrointestinal disease with incidence rate higher in developing countries. H. pylori also has an important role in the pathogenesis of various diseases in the human digestive tract, such as chronic gastritis, peptic ulcers, and even gastric cancer.
Researchers from the Institute of Tropical Disease (ITD) and the Faculty of Medicine (FK) Universitas Airlangga dr. Dalla Doohan and Dr. Muhammad Miftahussurur, Sp.PD., M. Kes., Ph.D in collaboration with Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Japan recently succeeded in publishing the results of their research in one of the leading international journals, Medical Microbiology and Immunology.
“This research focuses on CagA, which is one of the most important virulence factors of H. pylori. The research studied the latest non-invasive diagnostic method that enables clinicians to detect antibody levels against CagA in serum, the enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) method that uses East Asian type CagA protein as an antigen, “said the FK lecturer.
An important conclusion drawn from this study was that the diagnostic method used has been shown to have better performance and accuracy to detect infection by CagA East Asia type. It also showed that this diagnostic method should be used in populations pre-dominantly infected by CagA East Asian types, such as Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and China.
“The fact that more than 90% of H. pylori isolates in various countries can produce CagA protein also support the potential use of this diagnostic method as an examination to detect the status of H. pylori infection with a high level of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. The availability of an accurate and easily applied diagnostic method is expected to be the first step to detect H. pylori infection and make treatment efforts as early as possible “, he stated.
Author: Dian Putri Apriliani
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
Link : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00430-019-00634-5
