Elevated prevalence of Helicobacter species and virulence factors in opisthorchiasis and associated hepatobiliary disease

Recent reports suggest that Opisthorchis viverrini serves as a reservoir of Helicobacter and implicate Helicobacter in pathogenesis of opisthorchiasis-associated cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Here, 553 age-sex matched cases and controls, 293 and 260 positive and negative for liver fluke O. viverrini eggs, of residents in Northeastern Thailand were investigated for associations among infection with liver fluke, Helicobacter and hepatobiliary fibrosis. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was higher in O. viverrini-infected than uninfected participants. H. pylori bacterial load correlated positively with intensity of O. viverrini infection, and participants with opisthorchiasis exhibited higher frequency of virulent cagA-positive H. pylori than those free of fluke infection. Genotyping of cagA from feces of both infected and uninfected participants revealed that the AB genotype accounted for 78% and Western type 22%. Participants infected with O. viverrini exhibited higher prevalence of typical Western type (EPIYA ABC) and variant AB’C type (EPIYT B) CagA. Multivariate analyses among H. pylori virulence genes and severity of hepatobiliary disease revealed positive correlations between biliary periductal fibrosis during opisthorchiasis and CagA and CagA with CagA multimerization (CM) sequence-positive H. pylori. These findings support the hypothesis that H. pylori contributes to the pathogenesis of chronic opisthorchiasis and specifically to opisthorchiasis-associated CCA.