Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2021; 27(7): 545-560
Published online Feb 21, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i7.545
Helicobacter pylori: Commensal, symbiont or pathogen?
Vasiliy Ivanovich Reshetnyak, Alexandr Igorevich Burmistrov, Igor Veniaminovich Maev
Vasiliy Ivanovich Reshetnyak, Alexandr Igorevich Burmistrov, Igor Veniaminovich Maev, Department of Propaedeutic of Internal Diseases and Gastroenterology, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Moscow 127473, Russia
Author contributions: All authors have equally contributed to the conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vasiliy Ivanovich Reshetnyak, DSc, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Propaedeutic of Internal Diseases and Gastroenterology, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, p. 1, 20 Delegatskaya Street, Moscow 127473, Russia. vasiliy.reshetnyak@yandex.ru
Received: December 5, 2020
Peer-review started: December 5, 2020
First decision: December 27, 2020
Revised: December 28, 2020
Accepted: January 21, 2021
Article in press: January 21, 2021
Published online: February 21, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: This review provides data on Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) as one of the recently identified human bacterial pathogens. On the one hand, its role as a human pathogenic bacterium that is commonly found in patients with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric cancer is discussed. On the other hand, the high prevalence of H. pylori in the population and its asymptomatic coexistence with humans in most of the world’s population indicates its persistence in the body as a representative of the microbiome and as a nonpathogenic microorganism. The presented data suggest that there is an apparent ambiguity of the problem and a need for an analytically developed, comprehensive approach to study the effect of H. pylori infection on human health and to perform eradication therapy.