Letters To The Editor
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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2013; 19(3): 429-430
Published online Jan 21, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i3.429
Association of inducible nitric oxide synthetase genotype and Helicobacter pylori infection gastric cancer risk may be due to faulty primer design
Amin Talebi Bezmin Abadi, Johannes G Kusters
Amin Talebi Bezmin Abadi, Johannes G Kusters, Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands
Author contributions: Abadi ATB and Kusters JG contributed to primary concept, in silico analysis of primers, sequences and writing the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Dr. Johannes G Kusters, Department of Medical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. h.kusters@umcutrecht.nl
Telephone: +31-88-7553687 Fax: +31-88-7555426
Received: September 27, 2012
Revised: December 11, 2012
Accepted: December 20, 2012
Published online: January 21, 2013
Processing time: 115 Days and 22.1 Hours
Abstract

Rafiei et al recently described an association between the presence of the C150T polymorphism of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) induced gastric cancer. When we used primer-BLAST to find the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product that would be generated by the primers used by these authors no products against any of the sequences present in the GenBank database were found. Further analysis of the iNOS sequences present in the GenBank suggest that the result from their study might come from a faulty primer design and may thus represent an artifact. Alternatively they may be correct and have identified a truly interesting explanation for the mechanism whereby H. pylori induces gastric cancer but some additional experiments would be in order to exclude the possibility of a PCR artifact.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori; Polymorphism; Inducible nitric oxide synthase