Korean researchers discover substance to treat ‘Helicobacter pylori’

Dr. Miyoung Son’s research team at the National Agenda Research Department of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced that they had succeeded in identifying the mechanism of gastric cell damage caused by Helicobacter pylori (Helicobacter pylori) infection using stomach organoids and discovering candidate substances to treat it.

Korea’s stomach cancer incidence rate is the highest in the world. While Helicobacter pylori infection is cited as a factor that increases the incidence of stomach cancer, along with eating habits, drinking, and lack of physical activity, domestic researchers have proposed a new alternative for treating Helicobacter pylori infection.

It is expected that the results of this research can maximize the treatment effect when used in combination with Helicobacter pylori eradication treatment using existing antibiotics.

Dr. Miyoung Son’s research team announced that they had succeeded in discovering a candidate substance to treat Helicobacter pylori infection using stomach organoids. (From left) First author Dr. Lee Moo-seung, first author Dr. Son Ye-seul, and research director Dr. Son Mi-young. Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology

Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world and is a disease in which Helicobacter pylori grows parasitic on the gastrointestinal mucosa and causes gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, and gastric adenocarcinoma.

Although there are differences by region, approximately half of the world’s population is known to be infected with Helicobacter pylori, and the infection rate in Korea is also estimated to be 40-50%.

Infection with Helicobacter pylori does not necessarily require treatment, but Helicobacter pylori is a class 1 carcinogen designated by the World Health Organization (WHO), and patients infected with Helicobacter pylori have a 3 to 6 times higher risk of stomach cancer than the general public. As it is reported to be high, there is a need to discover effective treatments to prevent stomach cancer and prevent its progression.

Currently, the most widely used treatment for Helicobacter pylori infection is removing Helicobacter pylori with antibiotics. However, Helicobacter pylori exists on the surface of the gastrointestinal mucosa or in the mucus of the stomach, so treatment drugs often do not sufficiently reach the area where the bacteria are present. If the patient has been exposed to antibiotics multiple times, resistance develops, making treatment difficult.

In particular, antibacterial treatment alone cannot repair the damaged gastric mucosa, and has the side effect of eliminating beneficial bacteria, so there is a steady demand for the development of treatments that can restore the damaged gastric mucosa.

The research team used 3D gastric organoids to identify the mechanism of gastric mucous cell damage that occurs in the early stages of Helicobacter pylori infection and discovered therapeutic candidates that restore gastric cells damaged by infection.

Research director Dr. Miyoung Son said, “So far, cancer cell lines or mouse models have been mainly used in Helicobacter pylori-related research, but with this organoid-based research, we were able to overcome limitations such as cross-species specificity, which was pointed out as a limitation.” He added, “In the future, organoids “It is expected that the success rate of new drug development will be increased by quickly and accurately deriving active ingredients by predicting human reactions using .”

Meanwhile, the results of this research were published in the online edition of the global scientific journal Biomaterials (IF 12.8) on September 26, and were supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Korea Bio Grand Challenge project, the government-wide regenerative medicine technology development project, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s advanced toxicity evaluation technology infrastructure establishment project, and the Korea Life Research Institute. It was carried out with the support of major projects.