Characterization of a 25,000-dalton Helicobacter pylori protein, cross-reacting with a Campylobacter jejuni protein

Extract obtained by ultrasonic disruption of Helicobacter pylori bacteria contained a protein with subunit molecular mass of 25 kD which bound antibodies in sera from patients with H. pylori-associated disease. The protein was purified by gel permeation and elution from SDS-polyacrylamide gel slices, and was used to raise an anti-25-kD protein-specific rabbit serum. Using the antiserum in experiments, the results indicated the following: The protein exists as covalently linked dimers (45 kD) of the 25-kD subunits. Variable numbers of non-covalently linked copies of the dimers make up the native protein. The protein was susceptible to digestion by papain, pronase, and trypsin. Pepsin cleaved off a fragment of approximately 2 kD. A small share of the protein was exposed at the bacterial cell surface, the greatest share being localized internally. The protein was not secreted and it was probably not an integral part of the outer membrane. It was produced in variable quantity by all of 11 H. pylori strains tested and was a major protein in some strains. A cross-reacting protein with subunit size of 25 kD was also produced by Campylobacter jejuni strains, but not by any of a variety of other bacteria. Since both H. pylori and C. jejuni infection occur with a high frequency. the cross-reacting 25-kD protein may interfere unfavourably with the diagnostic specificity of serological tests for infection caused by these bacteria.