Low Virulence of Helicobacter Pylori and Gastric Cancer: the Contribution of Polymorphisms of iNOS and DNA Repair Enzymes in this Process

This study aimed to investigate the interaction between the iNOS C >T polymorphism, the genotype of H. pylori strains and polymorphisms in DNA repair genes (OGG-1, APE-1 and PARP-1) in a set of gastric cancer patients. In our methods, polymorphism was assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and H. pylori detection/ genotyping by PCR. A significant result shows this iNOS polymorphism more frequent among young gastric cancer patients than older patients (p= 0.020). Host genetic features, such as DNA repair enzymes (OGG-1, APE-1, PARP- 1), are also important in preventing the malignancy process. Polymorphisms present in these enzymes associated with iNOS activity could lead to gastric cancer even in the presence of low virulent H. pylori strains. Within our results, iNOS homozygous wild-type (CC) genotype and APE-1 polymorphic allele (TG+GG) group were more infected by H. pylori low-virulent strains (p=0.021). In Conclusion, our study indicates the importance of H. pylori and host DNA repair enzymes genotypes in gastric carcinogenesis in interection with this specific iNOS polymorphism.