Characterization of the cagA-gene in Helicobacter pylori in Mongolia and detection of two EPIYA-A enriched CagA types

Helicobacter pylori infection is strongly associated with gastritis, gastroduodenal ulcer disease and gastric carcinoma. The virulence of H. pylori strains increases with the presence of the pathogenicity island PAI, which encodes a Type 4 Secretion System and the oncoprotein CagA. Two major CagA types can be distinguished by differences in the repetitive EPIYA region in the C-terminal sequence; the more virulent East Asian CagA type with EPIYA-A, -B, and -D motifs and the Western CagA type with EPIYA-A, -B, and C motifs, the virulence of which is associated with the multitude of EPIYA-C motifs.

In this study, the cagA gene was characterized in H. pylori strains isolated from Mongolians suffering from gastritis (80%) or ulcer (20%). The EPIYA region of 53 isolates was determined by PCR-amplification of overlapping cagA regions and subsequent Sanger sequencing. Only one H. pylori isolate carried the East Asian type (ABD) and 52 isolates the Western type of CagA, thereof 30 the EPIYA type ABC, 19 the ABCC type and one each of type ABCCCC, AAABC and AAAAB. An amino acid exchange from EPIYA-B to EPIYT-B was predominantly found in CagA proteins in strains with < 2 EPIYA-C copies (n = 25/32; p = 0.015) including the two EPIYA-A enriched CagA proteins, which have not been described to date. Due to the amino acid triplet preceding the EPIYA motif and strength of predicted phosphorylation, the multiple EPIYA-A motifs A2, A3 and A4 were shown to cluster with EPIYA-B and EPIYT-B with the unique feature of amino acid E in position − 4 to Y of EPIYA. It has been described that tyrosine-phosphorylated EPIYA-A and -B motifs counteract the EPIYA-C-driven signaling towards host cell transformation and malignancy. Thus, Mongolian H. pylori strains carrying CagA proteins not only with a few EPIYA-C segments but also with multiplied EPIYA-A segments are probably less virulent; a thesis that needs further investigation at the protein level.