Parma, September 5 – Colonizing permanently in the very acidic environment of the human stomach without being neutralized by the immune system is no easy feat. Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium considered one of the main risk factors for ulcers and gastric cancer, is the only one able to do it. A new research conducted in the Department of Biosciences, University of Parma, has brought up a new regulatory mechanism essential for infecting the gastric mucosa by Helicobacter pylori: the bacterium “perceives” the concentration of certain metal ions and, through the compaction of a small region of its DNA, regulates gene expression of enzymes necessary for the survival in an acidic environment. The results of this work, which counts among its authors two young molecular biologists at the University of Parma, Nicola Doniselli and Stefano Maggi, were published on the “Nature Communications” journal. (9Colonne)
