Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection:Meeting the challenge of antimicrobial resistance

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is paramount for the management of prevalent gastrointestinal disorders including peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Due to the wide increase in prevalence of H. pylori resistance to antibiotics, clarithromycin-based triple therapies are not any more suitable for unconditional empiric use, and should not be recommended, unless local resistance to this antibiotic is low (< 20%). Alternative strategies have been proposed to overcome the issue of increasing clarithromycin resistance, and some of them are already implemented in clinical practice. These comprise: (1) adoption of novel, more effective, empirical treatments: bismuth quadruple, sequential, non-bismuth quadruple (concomitant), dual-concomitant (hybrid), and levofloxacin-based regimens, the latter mainly designated as second-line/rescue options; (2) perspectives for a susceptibility-guided (tailored) therapeutic approach based on culture-free molecular testing methods; and (3) adjunct use of probiotics to improve eradication rates. The present article is aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of current and emerging strategies in the treatment of H. pylori infection, focusing on the challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection: Past, present and future

Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) is a major human patho-gen associated with significant morbidity and mortal-ity. However, after decades of efforts, treatment of H. pylori remains a challenge for physicians, as there is no universally effective regimen. Due to the rising prevalence of antimicrobial resistance, mainly to clar-ithromycin, efficacy of standard triple therapies has declined to unacceptably low levels in most parts of the world. Novel regimens, specifically experimented to improve the therapeutic outcome against antibiotic-resistant H. pylori strains, are now recommended as first-line empirical treatment options providing high ef-ficacy(reportedly > 90% in intention to treat analysis) even in high clarithromycin resistance settings. These include the bismuth quadruple, concomitant, sequential and hybrid therapies. Due to the rapid development of quinolone resistance, levofloxacin-based regimens should be reserved as second-line/rescue options. Adjunct use of probiotics has been proposed in order to boost eradication rates and decrease occurrence of treatment-related side effects. Molecular testing meth-ods are currently available for the characterization of H. pylori therapeutic susceptibility, including genotypic detection of macrolide resistance and evaluation of the cytochrome P450 2C19 status known to affect the me-tabolism of proton pump inhibitors. In the future, use of these techniques may allow for culture-free, non-invasive tailoring of therapy for H. pylori infection.

Current Helicobacter pylori treatment in 2014

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most commonly seen bacterium worldwide.It's in the etiology of multiple gastrointestinal diseases,ranging from gastritis to gastric carcinoma.The antimicrobial therapies,which are frequently prescribed empirically,are losing their effectivity as a result of the increasing antimicrobial resistance.As the standard triple therapy is now leftespecially in areas with high-clarithromycin resistance due to decreased eradication rates,quadruple therapies are recommended in most regions of the world.Alternatively,concomitant,sequential and hybrid therapies are used.There is still a debate going on about the use of levofloxacin-based therapy in order to prevent the increase in quinolone resistance.If no regimen can achieve the desired eradication rate,culture-guided individualized therapies are highly recommended.Probiotics,statins and n-acetylcysteine are helpful as adjuvant therapies in order to increase the effectiveness of the eradication therapy.Herein,we focused on different eradication regimens in order to highlight the current Helicobacter pylori treatment.