Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2027; 33(3): 123466
Published online Jan 21, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123466
Published online Jan 21, 2027. doi: 10.3748/wjg.123466
In-depth analysis of cagY in worldwide Helicobacter pylori strains unmasks a strong correlation between sequence diversity and gastric cancer
Mario A López-Luis, Alfonso Méndez-Tenorio, Department of Biochemistry, ENCB, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City 07738, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Roberto C Torres, Javier Torres, UIMEIP, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City 06720, Ciudad de México, Mexico
Jay V Solnick, Center for Comparative Medicine, Davis School of Medicine, University of California, California, CA 95616, United States
M Constanza Camargo, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Insti
Co-corresponding authors: Alfonso Méndez-Tenorio and Javier Torres.
Author contributions: López-Luis MA performed data curation and formal analysis; López-Luis MA, Torres RC, Méndez-Tenorio A and Torres J performed methodology, writing review and editing; Torres RC, Méndez-Tenorio A and Torres J performed the conceptualization, project administration and supervision; López-Luis MA, Torres RC, Solnick JV, Camargo MC, Méndez-Tenorio A, Torres J wrote the original draft and have read as well as approved the final manuscript; Méndez-Tenorio A and Torres J shared equal responsibility for project administration, study supervision.
AI contribution statement: AI tools (specifically Gemini) were used solely for programming assistance. No AI tool was involved in the generation of research data, interpretation of results, or formulation of conclusions.
Supported by the Coordinación de Investigación en Salud, Instituto de Seguro Social Mexico, No. FIS/IMSS/PROT/PRIO/18/083.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee (Comité de Ética en Investigación del Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, IMSS, CONBIOÉTICA-09-CEI-009-20160601) with approval number 2023-785-017.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: In this work, we did not use animal models; this is an analytical work using bioinformatic and genomic tests.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Corresponding author: Javier Torres, MD, Doctor, UIMEIP, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 330 Cuauhtémoc Avenue, Cuauhtémoc Borough, Alcaldía Doctores, Mexico City 06720, Ciudad de México, Mexico. uimeip@gmail.com
Received: May 19, 2026
Revised: July 16, 2026
Accepted: October 23, 2026
Published online: January 21, 2027
Processing time: 179 Days and 1.6 Hours
Revised: July 16, 2026
Accepted: October 23, 2026
Published online: January 21, 2027
Processing time: 179 Days and 1.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: cagY is a Helicobacter pylori gene with a strong population structure, attesting to an ancient co-evolution with humans. We report that with a proper bioinformatic analyses cagY variants may distinguish patients with gastric cancer (GC) from those with non-atrophic gastritis. The GC-associated variants localized in two relevant regions of cagY, one in a cys