Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2022; 28(7): 766-774
Published online Feb 21, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i7.766
Gastrointestinal microbiome and Helicobacter pylori: Eradicate, leave it as it is, or take a personalized benefit–risk approach?
Stanislav Sitkin, Leonid Lazebnik, Elena Avalueva, Svetlana Kononova, Timur Vakhitov
Stanislav Sitkin, Elena Avalueva, Department of Internal Diseases, Gastroenterology and Dietetics, North-Western State Medical University Named After I.I. Mechnikov, St. Petersburg 191015, Russia
Stanislav Sitkin, Svetlana Kononova, Timur Vakhitov, Non-Infectious Disease Metabolomics Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, St. Petersburg 197376, Russia
Stanislav Sitkin, Epigenetics and Metagenomics Group, Institute of Perinatology and Pediatrics, Almazov National Medical Research Centre, St. Petersburg 197341, Russia
Leonid Lazebnik, Department of Outpatient Therapy, A.I. Yevdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, Moscow 127473, Russia
Svetlana Kononova, Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow region 142290, Russia
Author contributions: Sitkin S contributed to the conception, review of literature, and drafting of the manuscript; All authors contributed to the writing and editing of the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Russian Science Foundation, No. 20-65-47026.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict 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: Stanislav Sitkin, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher, Department of Internal Diseases, Gastroenterology and Dietetics, North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov, Kirochnaya Street, 41, St. Petersburg 191015, Russia. drsitkin@gmail.com
Received: August 13, 2021
Peer-review started: August 13, 2021
First decision: September 4, 2021
Revised: September 17, 2021
Accepted: January 20, 2022
Article in press: January 20, 2022
Published online: February 21, 2022
Processing time: 187 Days and 12.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is generally regarded as a human pathogen, but it can act as a commensal symbiont. H. pylori colonization may have beneficial effects on the host by regulating gastrointestinal microbiota and protecting against some allergic and autoimmune disorders and inflammatory bowel disease. H. pylori eradication can cause various adverse effects and alter the gastrointestinal microbiota, leading to dysbiosis. Therefore, eradication cannot be an unconditional recommendation in every case of H. pylori infection, and the therapeutic decision should be based on a personalized assessment of the benefit vs risk.