Objectives: To determine and compare the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in an urban and a remote rural Western Australian Indigenous community. Design: Cross‐sectional study of Helicobacter pylori status determined by urea breath tests between mid‐January 2003 and the end of June 2004. Participants: 520 self‐selected fasting participants, comprising 270 members of the Martu community at Jigalong, Punmu and Parnngurr in the East Pilbara region (129 men, 141 women; age range, 2–90 years) and 250 people from the Perth Indigenous community (96 men, 154 women; age range, 3–75 years. Results: The overall prevalence of H. pylori was 76%, but the prevalence in the remote rural community was 91%, compared with 60% in the urban community. The odds of having H. pylori were six times greater for rural than for urban participants (odds ratio [OR], 6.34; 95% CI, 3.89–10.33). Further, the overall odds of H. pylori infection in males (rural and urban combined) were greater than for females (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.02–2.54). In both communities, the prevalence of infection remained relatively constant after the age of 10. Conclusions: The prevalence of H. pylori in the two Indigenous communities was two to three times higher than that in the non‐Indigenous Australian population and higher than that shown in previous studies in Indigenous Australians.

We applied a molecular typing approach for Helicobacter pylori that uses restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses of an 820-bp PCR-amplified portion of the ureC gene in H. pylori. The PCR products were digested with restriction enzyme HhaI, MboI, or MseI, and the fragments generated were analyzed by agarose electrophoresis. Among 25 independent clinical isolates, each showed a different pattern when a combination of the three RFLP patterns was used. Using this method, we studied isolates from the antrum or the body of the stomach of 14 patients before and after antibiotic therapy. Before treatment, successful isolation of H. pylori from the two sites of the stomach was possible for 12 of the 14 patients. For 10 of these 12 patients, each pair of isolates had identical RFLP profiles. For the other two patients (16.7%), however, isolates from the antrum and the body of the stomach had different RFLP profiles. Treatment was successful for 6 of the 14 patients; of the 8 patients with treatment failures, 5 had identical isolate pairs. In each case, the isolates found posttreatment were the same as the pretreatment isolates. For one of the patients who was colonized with two different isolates pretreatment, one of the isolates was identified at both sites after unsuccessful treatment. We also studied six long-term follow-up patients who had sequential biopsies at intervals of up to 5 months. Each follow-up isolate from each patient had the same RFLP profile as the initial isolate. This typing method provides a reliable and reproducible typing scheme for the study of H. pylori infections and indicates that infection with more than one H. pylori isolate is not rare.

Since the methods for metronidazole susceptibility testing of Helicobacter pylori have not been standardized or validated, we compared three methods that are used to test the metronidazole susceptibilities of 25 isolates of H. pyloni. Specifically, we examined the methods of Steer's replicator agar dilution, tube broth microdilu

Human airway epithelial cell targeting peptides were identified by biopanning on 1HAEo-cells, a well characterised epithelial cell line. Bound phage were recovered after three rounds of binding, high stringency washing and elution, leading to the production of an enriched phage peptide population. DNA sequencing of 56 clones revealed 14 unique sequences. Subsequent binding analysis revealed that 13 of these peptides bound 1HAEo-cells with high affinity. Three peptides, SERSMNF, YGLPHKF and PSGAARA were represented at high frequency. Three clearly defined families of peptide were identified on the basis of sequence motifs including (R/K)SM, L(P/Q)HK and PSG(A/T)ARA. Two peptides, LPHKSMP and LQHKSMP contained two motifs. Further detailed sequence analysis by comparison of peptide sequences with the SWISSPROT protein database revealed that some of the peptides closely resembled the cell binding proteins of viral and bacterial pathogens including Herpes Simplex Virus, rotavirus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and rhinovirus, the latter two being respiratory pathogens, as well as peptide YGLPHKF having similarity to a protein of unknown function from the respiratory pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Peptides were incorporated into gene delivery formulations with the cationic lipid Lipofectin and plasmid DNA and shown to confer a high degree of transfection efficiency and specificity in 1HAEo-cells. Improved transfection efficiency and specificity was also observed in human endothelial cells, fibroblasts and keratinocytes. Therefore, on the basis of clone frequency after biopanning, cell binding affinity, peptide sequence conservation and pathogenic similarity, we have identified 3 novel peptide families and 5 specific peptides that have the potential for gene transfer to respiratory epithelium in vivo as well as providing useful in vitro transfection reagents for primary human cell types of scientific and commercial interest.

The prevalence of active infection with Helicobacter pylori in the general population of England and Wales was estimated using high reactivity for specific IgG in serum ELISA as a marker. A total of 10,118 anonymized residues of serum samples collected in 1986 and 1996 from persons aged 1-84 years were used. Estimated prevalence of active infection varied by region and was highest in London. Prevalence was related to decade of birth and increased from 4-3% in those born during the 1980s to 30% in those born before 1940. An estimated total of 7.5 million people living in England and Wales have an active infection and analysis by decade of birth showed no significant difference between samples collected in 1986 and 1996. These data suggest H. pylori infection is becoming less common, is acquired at an early age and is unlikely to be resolved unless suitable antimicrobial treatment is sought.