幽门螺杆菌被认为会引起胃病，然而，在这个过程中涉及到的确切病原分子并未得到阐明。十二指肠溃疡促进基因A（DupA）是一种致病因子，在胃炎和癌变中扮演着引人争议的作用。为了从微生物组的角度探索和确定DupA在胃病中的功能，我们通过16S rRNA引物测序调查了48名胃炎患者的微生物特征，并从这些患者中分离了21株H. pylori菌株，用PCR和qRT-PCR确认了dupA的表达。生物信息学分析确定了多态性损失和组成改变是胃癌前病变的关键特征，并且H. pylori是存在于胃炎患者胃中的典型微生物。共存分析揭示H. pylori感染抑制了其他胃内微生物的生长，从而削弱了异物降解。进一步分析表明，dupA + H. pylori在癌前病变中不存在，而更可能出现于糜烂性胃炎中，而dupA- H. pylori在癌前病变中非常丰富。H. pylori中dupA的存在对胃微生物组造成的干扰较小，从而保持了相对丰富的胃微生物组。总的来说，我们的发现表明H. pylori中高dupA表达与糜烂性胃炎的高风险和对胃微生物组干扰较低的水平相关，表明DupA应该被视为糜烂性胃炎而非胃癌的危险因素。 版权所有 ©2023 Chen、Li、Chen、Chen、Song、Yang、Ye、Wu、Xie、Zhong、Yang和Wu。

Helicobacter pylori is believed to induce gastropathy; however, the exact pathogenic molecules involved in this process have not been elucidated. Duodenal ulcer promoting gene A (DupA) is a virulence factor with a controversial role in gastric inflammation and carcinogenesis. To explore and confirm the function of DupA in gastropathy from the perspective of the microbiome, we investigated the microbial characteristics of 48 gastritis patients through 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. In addition, we isolated 21 H. pylori strains from these patients and confirmed the expression of dupA using PCR and qRT-PCR. Bioinformatics analysis identified diversity loss and compositional changes as the key features of precancerous lesions in the stomach, and H. pylori was a characteristic microbe present in the stomach of the gastritis patients. Co-occurrence analysis revealed that H. pylori infection inhibits growth of other gastric inhabiting microbes, which weakened the degradation of xenobiotics. Further analysis showed that dupA+ H. pylori were absent in precancerous lesions and were more likely to appear in erosive gastritis, whereas dupA- H. pylori was highly abundant in precancerous lesions. The presence of dupA in H. pylori caused less disturbance to the gastric microbiome, maintaining the relatively richness of gastric microbiome. Overall, our findings suggest that high dupA expression in H. pylori is correlated with a high risk of erosive gastritis and a lower level of disturbance to the gastric microbiome, indicating that DupA should be considered a risk factor of erosive gastritis rather than gastric cancer.Copyright © 2023 Chen, Li, Chen, Chen, Song, Yang, Ye, Wu, Xie, Zhong, Yang and Wu.