EPIYA motifs of Helicobacter pylori cagA genotypes and gastrointestinal diseases in the Iranian population: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Helicobacter pylori is one of the best risk factors for gastric cancer. Recent studies have examined the relationship between virulence factors, in particular CagA toxin, and the development of gastrointestinal diseases. According to the literature, there is a significant relationship between the polymorphism of cagA-EPIYA motifs and progression to severe clinical outcomes. The main goal of our study was to determine the possible association between cagA genotypes and the risk of severe clinical outcomes in the Iranian population. We investigated these ambiguities using a comprehensive meta-analysis study, in which we evaluated data from 1762 Iranian patients for a potential correlation between all cagA gene genotypes and gastrointestinal diseases. According to statistical analysis, the frequencies of cagA genotypes including ABC, ABCC, AB and ABCCC in the Iranian population were estimated at 80.18%, 22.81%, 5.52% and 2.76%, respectively; the ABD genotype was not detected in these PCR-based studies. There was a significant relationship between cagA genotypes ABCC and ABCCC and severe clinical outcomes of infection such as peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. Overall, it can be concluded that there is a positive correlation with the number of copies of EPIYA-C and the increase of gastric cancer. Therefore, according to our results, it seems that the EPIYA-ABCCC motif has a strong positive relationship with gastric cancer in the Iranian population.