Prevalence of tumor necrosis factor alpha inducing protein ( tipα ) gene of Helicobacter pylori and its association with upper gastrointestinal diseases in India

Helicobacter pylori ( H. pylori ) is known to cause several gastroduodenal diseases including chronic Gastritis, Peptic Ulcer disease and Gastric Cancer. Virulent genes of H. pylori like cagA , vacA are known to be responsible for the disease pathogenesis. However, these virulence genes are not always found to be associated with disease outcome in all populations around the world. Tumor necrosis factor alpha inducing protein tipα is a newly discovered virulence gene of H. pylori and is an inducer of certain cytokines and chemokines that are responsible for causing stomach cancer. Therefore, we conducted a study, which aims to find the prevalence of tipα gene in the Indian patients with gastroduodenal symptoms, and its association with H. pylori related gastroduodenal diseases. 267 clinical H. pylori isolates are included in our study for finding the prevalence of tipα gene and its association with cagA and vacA gene using PCR assay. The current study shows that the prevalence rate of tipα gene is 59.9%. Our study has found a significant association ( p < 0.05) of tipα gene with Non Ulcer Dyspepsia (NUD) and an association of cagA and vacA s1m1 with Gastritis and Duodenal Ulcer. Our study demonstrates for the first time the presence of tipα as virulence factor of H. pylori strain in Indian population isolated from patients suffering from gastroduodenal diseases. Further, tipα is significantly associated with NUD but not with other gastroduodenal diseases in India.