Narrow Results

H2 receptor antagonist (H2RA) and proton pump inhibitor(PPI) are often used to treat gastric ulcers, in addition to the zinc-L-carcino-complex which is commonly adopted for such therapies. However, there have been no previous reports detailing the levels and distribution of zinc in human gastric mucosa. The aim of our current study is to clarify the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and trace elements such as zinc in gastric mucosa using particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). Forty gastric ulcer patients were chosen as subjects of this study and divided into two groups. One is a new ulcer patients group(twenty nine cases). And the other, eleven of these patients had been prescribed zinc-L-carcino-complex (polapreZinc^®), at a dose of 150mg/day for periods ranging from 16 to 20 weeks. The zinc levels in the gastric ulcer group were found to be significantly less than those of the control group and the concentrations of zinc in gastric mucosa were observed to increase following the administration of treatments containing this element.

The purpose of this study is to clarity how trace elements in gastric mucosa, reflex bile acid and inflammation of gastric mucosa relate to environment of Helicobacter Pylori.

Subjects were 33 patients who had colonic endoscopic examination. 11 gastric ulcer and 14 duodenal ulcer patients were chosen as subjects of the study. The control group had 8 members who had no localized lesions. Trace elements were measured by PIXE analysis which use Pd as internal standard.

Cu and Zn, especially Zn, were found in large amount in gastric body and antrum. Zn value for the antrum was higher than that for the gastric body.

Especially, the values of Zn for antrum showed significant differences between grade I, II and grade III of inflammatory cell infiltration.

In gastric ulcer group, the value of Cu indicated high at gastric body and low at antrum. On the other hand, the values of Zn were low at both gastric body and antrum.

Particularly, development of atrophy in antrum requires less than one in gastric body; therefore, trace elements decreased in gastric ulcer group.

Impatiens balsamina L. has been used as indigenous medicine in Asia for the treatment of rheumatism, fractures, and fingernail inflammation. In this study, anti-H. pylori activity of I. balsamina L. was investigated. The MICs, MBCs, time-kill assay, and effect of environmental pH for the plant extracts were determined. The test H. pylori strains have resistance to clarithromycin (CLR), metronidazole (MTZ), and levofloxacin (LVX). From our results, all part (root/stem/leaf, seed, and pod) extracts of I. balsamina L. exhibited bactericidal H. pylori activity. Specifically, the pod extract had significantly lower MICs and MBCs (1.25–2.5 and 1.25–5.0 μg/ml, respectively). Of the five pod-extraction solvents, both ethyl acetate and acetone were the most efficient for the anti-H. pylori compounds of the pod extraction. The dose-dependency of the pod extract's bactericidal activity was H. pylori strain-dependent. Bactericidal H. pylori activity of the pod extract was not affected by the environmental pH (2–8). In summary, the acetone and ethyl acetate pod extracts of I. balsamina L. exhibited very strong anti-H. pylori activity. This activity exceeded that of MTZ and approximated to that of AMX.

Helicobacter pylori infections induce host cell inflammation and apoptosis, however, they are conflicting. Tanshinone IIA is an active compound of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. In this study, we investigated the regulatory effects of tanshinone IIA on H. pylori-induced inflammation and apoptosis in vitro. Tanshinone IIA treatments (13.6–54.4$\mu$M) significantly decreased nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) [p-38 and C-terminal Jun-kinase 1/2 (JNK1/2)] protein expressions and inflammatory substance [cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX), intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), interleukin-1$\beta$ (IL-1$\beta )$, IL-6, and IL-8] production in the H. pylori-infected cells. In contrast, tanshinone IIA treatments significantly increased apoptotic relevant protein [Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and caspase 9] expressions and increased mitochondrial transmembrane potential ($\mathrm{\Delta }{\mathrm{\Psi }}_{\text{m}})$ disruption, mitochondrial cytochrome $c$ (cyt $c)$ release, and caspase cascades. Tanshinone IIA treatments effectively decreased H. pylori-induced inflammation and significantly promoted H. pylori-induced intrinsic apoptosis through NF-kB and MAPK (p-38 and JNK) pathways. Tanshinone IIA has great potential as a candidate to protect host cells from H. pylori-induced severe inflammation and gastric cancer.

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This review describes the following issues: H. pylori infection rate and features of background gastric mucosa of early gastric cancer patients; the relationship between H. pylori infection and the development of gastric cancer in Japan; inhibition of the development and growth of gastric cancer by eradication of H. pylori in human and animal model; and finally, the morphologic and functional change of gastric mucosa by eradication. There is a higher incidence of gastric cancer in Japan than in the West, and this is suspected to be associated with the rapid rate of corpus gastritis development, which is associated with chronic corpus atrophic gastritis and the increased risk of gastric cancer. There have been several evidences that eradication of H. pylori pushes towards the direction in which the development and growth of cancer in gastric mucosa is inhibited. It is now expected that gastric cancer prevention by eradication of H. pylori will be established in the near future in Japan.

Stomach cancer is still a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the Asia-Pacific region. The risk factors are well known. However, the clinical symptoms are very nonspecific. Indeed, most of the stomach cancers are diagnosed at a late stage in most countries outside Japan. This contributes to the overall poor survival rate. Surgery remains the main modality for curative treatment. However, there are controversies over the extent of surgical resection. For locally advanced and metastatic disease, other nonsurgical modalities play an increasing role. Future efforts to improve the outcome of the disease should therefore focus on early detection.

A simple, fast, real-time, and nondestructive analysis of protein expression in biological samples, such as membranes, based on dielectrophoresis is described. On the basis of the distinct differences in the dielectrophoretic properties of individual cell types, the wild-type BabA-positive Helicobacter pylori isolates and its BabA-negative isogenic mutant can be identified and separated. The herein-presented approach of using microelectrodes should be an easy-to-use, cheap, and rapid alternative to separate and distinguish the presence or absence of important outer-membrane proteins.

The detection of gene fusion events across genomes can be used for the prediction of functional associations of proteins, including physical interactions or complex formation. These predictions are obtained by the detection of similarity for pairs of ‘component’ proteins to ‘composite’ proteins. Since the amount of composite proteins is limited in nature, we augment this set by creating artificial fusion proteins from experimentally determined protein interacting pairs. The goal is to study the extent of protein interaction partners with increasing phylogenetic distance, using an automated method. We have thus detected component pairs within seven entire genome sequences of similar size, using artificially generated composite proteins that have been shown to interact experimentally. Our results indicate that protein interactions are not conserved over large phylogenetic distances. In addition, we provide a set of predictions for functionally associated proteins across seven species using experimental information and demonstrate the applicability of fusion analysis for the comparative genomics of protein interactions.

Ligands exhibiting high reactivity have been a subject of long-standing and continuing interest in coordination chemistry. Processes taking place in aqueous solutions allow us to learn about the individual stages of complexation in equilibrium systems under changing environmental conditions, especially those related to pH values. Schiff base and hydroxamic acid ligands and their complexes with metals are some of the most versatile topics of interest. Due to easy access to multidentate ligands, species in these systems are remarkably rich in terms of their structure and physicochemical properties. They take various forms, from mononuclear complexes to polynuclear structures, including metallacrowns. The study of such compounds in aqueous solutions is essential to precisely define and understand structure–property relationships in order to optimize their biological applications. The division of the subject of study into three main parts corresponds to a description of binary complexes of cobalt(II) with 2-picolinehydroxamic acid and N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)alanine and heteroligand complexes containing both these ligands. Their biological properties related to antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activities as well as their ability to bind DNA are also presented.