Abstract
Protein patterns of 129 Helicobacter pylori strains isolated from Korean and Colombian patients suffering from duodenal ulcer or gastric cancer were analyzed by the high-throughput methodology SELDI-TOF-MS. Eighteen statistically significant candidate biomarkers discriminating between the two clinical outcomes were selected by using the Mann-Whitney test. Three biomarker proteins were purified and identified as a neutrophil-activating protein NapA (HU HPAG1_0821), a RNA-binding protein (HPAG1_0813), and a DNA-binding histone-like protein HU, respectively (jhp0228). These novel biomarkers can be used for development of diagnostic assays predicting the evolution to gastric cancer in H. pylori-infected patients.