Helicobacter pylori and Epstein-Barr virus coinfection stimulates the aggressiveness in gastric cancer through the regulation of gankyrin

Persistent coinfection of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) promotes aggressive gastric carcinoma. The molecular mechanisms underlying the aggressiveness in H. pylori and EBV coinfected gastric cancer is not well characterized. In the current study, we investigated the molecular mechanism involved in the cooperation of H. pylori and EBV-driven proliferation of gastric epithelial cells. Results showed that the coinfections are significantly more advantageous to the pathogens to create a microenvironment that favors the higher pathogen-associated gene expression. The EBV latent genes EBNA1 and EBNA3C are highly overexpressed in the coinfections compared to individual EBV infection at different time points (12 and 24 hrs). The H. pylori-associated genes 16s rRNA, CagA, and BabA has also been highly overexpressed in coinfections compared to H. pylori alone. Gankyrin is a small protein of 25 KDa involved in multiple biological and physiological processes. The upregulation of gankyrin modulates the various cell signaling pathways, leading to oncogenesis. The gankyrin shows a similar expression pattern as EBNA3C at both transcript and protein levels, suggesting a possible correlation. Further EBV and H. pylori create microenvironments that induce cell transformation and oncogenesis by dysregulation of the cell-cycle regulator, GC marker, cell migration, DNA response, and antiapoptotic genes in infected gastric epithelial cells by enhancing the expression of gankyrin. Our study provides new insights into the molecular mechanism where the interplay between two oncogenic agents (H. pylori and EBV) leads to the enhanced carcinogenic activity of gastric epithelial cells through overexpression of oncoprotein gankyrin.