A new model for the transmission of Helicobacter pylori: Role of environmental reservoirs as gene pools to increase strain diversity

• Type: Another Publication in an International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2007

Authors

Azevedo, NF (Author) Other; Guimaraes, N (Author) Other; Figueiredo, C (Author) FMUP; Keevil, CW (Author) Other; Vieira, MJ (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Critical Reviews in Microbiology

Vol. 33

Pages: 157-169

ISSN: 1040-841X

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 34 Citations

Scopus - 42 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Biological sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-004-CW7

DOI: 10.1080/10408410701451922

Abstract (EN): Twenty-five years after the first successful cultivation and isolation of Helicobacter pylori, the scientific community is still struggling to understand the way(s) this bacterium is transmitted among the human population. Here, both epidemiologic and microbiologic evidence addressing this matter is reviewed and explored to conclude that most H. pylori successful colonizations are derived from direct person-to-person contact and that even though exposure of humans to H. pylori from environmental sources is a very common event, in most occasions the host is able to fight off infection. In addition, under a new model developed here, we propose that the near elimination of environmental reservoirs is the main responsible for the lower prevalence observed in the more industrialized countries by acting on two levels: by decreasing the number of direct infections and by diminishing the number of intraspecies recombination events for producing strain variation within H. pylori.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 13