Pathogenesis of Helicobacter pylori and perspectives of vaccine development against an emerging pathogen

Infection of the stomach and the duodenum by Helicobacter pylori is the major cause of acute and chronic gastroduodenal pathologies in humans and increases the risk of gastric cancer. The recognition of the infectious nature of the illness is having a major impact in the management of the disease that is shifting from the treatment of symptoms by anti-H2 blockers to the eradication of the bacterial infection by antibiotic regimen. Experience with other bacterial diseases, suggests that antibiotic treatment will select resistant strains that in the long term will make the antibiotics infective. Vaccination that classically is the most effective way to prevent and control infectious diseases in large population, could be used to prevent infection and possibly also to treat the disease. Here we summarize the studies on the identification and characterization of the virulence factors that are important for the pathogenesis of the bacterium and that may be candidate components for a vaccine. Animal models of the infection are also described.