Antibodies from Japanese patients improve accuracy of H. pylori assay

May 22, 2014

The researchers of Okayama University Graduate School of Health Sciences and other institutions have developed a new antibody diagnostic assay for H. pylori in which antigens from Japanese patients are used. The conventional assay used the standard strain from European people for the antigens.

Kenji Yokota and his group isolated 8 genetically different strains of H. pylori from Japanese patients and prepared antigens from the 8 strains. Of the 8 strains, 2 major antigens among Japanese were selected by their reactions with stored patients' serum. A new assay kit of H. pylori was constructed with the 2 antigens instead of the standard antigen from the European patients' strain. Some result samples previously detected as negative were detected as positive by the kit. This assay kit is cleared as a clinical diagnostic product. The new assay kit is expected to improve sensitivity and specificity of H. pylori detection in Japanese patients.

H. pylori is known to be a cause of gastric duodenal ulcers and stomach cancer, but it has been shown to also cause systematic diseases such as thrombocytopenia purpura, arteriosclerosis, and hypoferric anemia. Therefore, the detection of H. pylori infection is very important for the prevention of these diseases. The assay system for H. pylori suitable for Japanese developed in this study is expected to contribute to the improvement in accuracy of determining the infection status of H. pylori.



Contact Information:
Mototaka Senda, Ph.D.
US Representative
Intellectual Property Office, Organization for Research Promotion and Collaboration, Okayama University
Fremont, California USA
TEL: 1-510-797-0907
Email: takasenda@okayama-u.ac.jp

Kenji Yokota
Graduate School of Health Sciences Okayama University, Okayama, Japan