Separation and surveys of proteins of Helicobacter pylori

The analysis of Helicobacter pylori proteins is a demanding task for the elucidation of virulence factors, antigens and vaccines, all important for diagnosis, therapy and protection. In the "pre-genomic era" the purification of proteins was mostly performed by using various techniques such as detergent treatment of the bacterial cells, ultra-centrifugation, various chromatographic methods, antibody detection, N-terminal sequence determination and finally cloning and identification of the corresponding gene. In this review, the most representative methods used for purification, separation and identification of H. pylori proteins will be presented as well as some important developments in the "post-genomic era" that have improved the performance of these characterisation techniques.