Genomic study by MAHE, Manipal researchers may solve ’Indian Enigma’

Genomic study by MAHE, Manipal researchers may solve ’Indian Enigma’

Mangalore Today News Network

Manipal, Mar 09 2018: Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education researchers in collaboration with their Australian counterparts have sequenced 42 strains of a disease-causing bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, to better understand the genetic factors that play a role in disease development in India.

The bacterium stays in the human gut, causes gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric cancers.

The results of this study are published in journal American Society of Microbiology. The research team includes Vignesh Shetty and Mamatha Ballal from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Binit Lamichhane, Eng-Guan Chua and Chen-Yen Tay from the Marshall Centre for infectious Diseases Research and Training School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia.

The findings note that although this infection is spread in all regions of the country, the incidence of infection resulting in gastric cancer is more prevalent in South and North East and is called ’Indian Enigma’. High genetic variation in ’H pylori’ strains from different regions of India is considered one of the major reasons of this Enigma. The bacteria is transmitted through direct contact with saliva, vomit or fecal matter of infected individual.