Editor's Summary

17 May 2007

H. pylori beats PAR

Helicobacter pylori infects more than half of the world's population, and though usually well tolerated, it can cause gastric mucosal damage, peptic ulcers, gastritis and adenocarcinoma. CagA is the main virulence factor of H. pylori, delivered directly by the bacterium into epithelial cells where it interferes with cell signalling. CagA is now shown to bind to the polarity protein, Par-1, inhibiting its phosphorylation and disrupting epithelial cell polarity. This study provides the first molecular link between a human pathogen and the PAR cell polarity machinery, and points to a possible general role for PAR1 inhibition in gastrointestinal carcinogenesis.

Letter: Helicobacter pylori CagA targets PAR1/MARK kinase to disrupt epithelial cell polarity

Iraj Saadat, Hideaki Higashi, Chikashi Obuse, Mayumi Umeda, Naoko Murata-Kamiya, Yasuhiro Saito, Huaisheng Lu, Naomi Ohnishi, Takeshi Azuma, Atsushi Suzuki, Shigeo Ohno & Masanori Hatakeyama

doi:10.1038/nature05765

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