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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2002, p. 1436-1439, Vol. 68, No. 3
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.3.1436-1439.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Isolation and Genotyping of Helicobacter pylori from Untreated Municipal Wastewater
Yingzhi Lu,1 Thomas E. Redlinger,1* Raquel Avitia,1 Adriana Galindo,1 and Karen Goodman2
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, Texas 79968,1
Houston School of Public Health, University of Texas, Houston, Texas 779022
Received 10 October 2001/
Accepted 17 December 2001

ABSTRACT
For this study, we isolated
Helicobacter pylori from wastewater
by a series of steps beginning with immunomagnetic separation
and cell culture. After Gram staining and three standard microbial
tests, the 16S rRNA sequences of a total of 23 out of 37 putative
H. pylori isolates were verified by PCR. Eleven
H. pylori isolates
were genotyped and fell into four
vacA classes: those with the
vacA allelic variants
s1a and
m1,
s1b and
m1,
s2 and
m2, or
s2 and
m1. Most
H. pylori isolates were of the
vacA s1a/
m1 type,
which has been shown to be associated with advanced diseases
based on genotyping of
H. pylori from gastric cancer patients.
These results demonstrated that
H. pylori survives in water
and may be a potential source of
H. pylori transmission, especially
where water is not adequately treated.

INTRODUCTION
Helicobacter pylori, a Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium,
has been implicated in the etiology of most gastritis and duodenal
ulcers and is believed to play a role in gastric cancer (
3).
Water supplies contaminated with fecal material may be a potential
source of
H. pylori transmission (
13). This is particularly
relevant in developing countries where municipal water supplies
are not adequately treated and water is obtained from rivers
and other untreated sources (
9,
15,
19). Although no evidence
of association of human infection with water source has been
reported in the United States,
H. pylori has been detected in
sewage, surface water, and shallow groundwater by various methods
(
11-
13; K. Forrest, M. Stinson, and S. M. Wright, Abstr. 98th
Gen. Meet. Am. Soc. Microbiol., abstr. Q-48, p. 445, 1998).
To date, there is no standard method for detecting H. pylori in environmental samples. The use of nonstandardized methods complicates comparisons across studies; in addition, the accuracy of results varies according to the sensitivities and specificities of the detection methods employed. Objectives of this research were (i) to isolate H. pylori from untreated wastewater by utilizing a combination of immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and culturing techniques, (ii) to identify H. pylori by classical microbiological tests and PCR (16S rRNA), and (iii) to genotype H. pylori isolates by PCR utilizing the vacuolating cytotoxin A gene (vacA).

Wastewater samples.
Raw municipal wastewater was obtained from an open wastewater
canal on the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico,
a city of 1.4 million inhabitants. The study area has an
H. pylori prevalence rate of 74% (
7,
10,
21). From November to
December 1999, several 1-liter water samples were collected
from Ciudad Juárez as needed, transported to the lab
on ice, and used within 2 h of collection. After isolation techniques
were developed, a final 100-ml sample was collected and was
the source for all results presented here. The final protocol
developed involved starting with an 11-ml aliquot of the water
sample, which was analyzed for total fecal coliforms and
Escherichia coli by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved membrane
filtration method (
2). The
H. pylori isolation protocol developed
utilized a 1-ml wastewater sample, which was diluted 1:100 with
sterile water and concentrated by vacuum filtration on a 2-µm-pore-size
nitrocellulose filter, eluted into tryptic soy broth containing
antibiotics (8 µg of vancomycin per ml, 0.2 µg of
polymyxin per ml, 4 µg of trimethoprim per ml; EM Science,
Gibbstown, N.J.), and incubated at 37°C for 24 h in a microaerophilic
atmosphere using Bio-Bags (type Cfj; Becton Dickinson). These
enriched cultures were harvested and resuspended in phosphate-buffered
saline, pH 7.2 (PBS), for IMS.
H. pylori control strains 26695,
60190, NCTC 11639, and Tx30a (American Type Culture Collection,
Manassas, Va.) were cultured on Columbia agar plates containing
15% defibrinated sheep blood in the microaerophilic atmosphere
described above at 37°C for 3 to 5 days.

IMS.
An important initial step was a concentration procedure by IMS
of untreated wastewater. This step not only selected for
H. pylori based on immunological properties but also eliminated
contaminating substances that may interfere with culturing.
H. pylori immunomagnetic beads were prepared according to the
manufacturer's instructions. Monoclonal mouse anti-
H. pylori immunoglobulin G (Fitzgerald Corp., Concord, Mass.) was gently
agitated on a rotating tube inverter (Dynal Corp., Oslo, Norway)
with 5 ml of magnetic beads precoated with sheep anti-rabbit
immunoglobulin G (Dynabeads M-280; Dynal Corp.) for 24 h at
4°C. After being washed, the beads were resuspended in 5
ml of PBS containing 0.1% bovine serum albumin and stored at
4°C (
6).
Wastewater samples were mixed with the prepared beads in the proportion of 1 ml to 20 µl and gently agitated as described above for 1 h at 4°C. After being separated and washed in PBS, the bead-H. pylori conjugates were streaked onto Columbia agar-blood agar plates and incubated for 3 to 5 days under microaerophilic conditions at 37°C. Small, gray colonies were selected and stained with Gram stain to verify morphology. Colonies with gram-negative rods or coccoid forms were tested by three diagnostic techniques: a rapid urease test (Christensen's urea test; Remel Inc., Lenexa, Kans.), cytochrome oxidase test (SpotTest Oxidase kit; Difco, Detroit, Mich.), and catalase test (SpotTest Catalase kit; Difco). H. pylori must be gram negative and positive for all three tests.

DNA isolation and vaca genotyping.
DNA was extracted from putative
H. pylori cells utilizing a
prepared kit (Dynabeads DNA DIRECT system I; Dynal Corp.). DNA
concentrations were measured by a fluorescence dye assay (DNA
quantitation kit; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.), and samples
were diluted to 10 ng/µl for the PCR assay. The method
of genotyping
H. pylori was derived from previous
H. pylori genotyping by Atherton et al. (
1). In the Western Hemisphere,
the
vacA gene has two major allelic variants:
s1/
s2 and
m1/
m2.
In addition, two minor variants of
s1 can be distinguished,
s1a and
s1b. H. pylori control strains used in this study are
known with respect to their
vacA genotypes: strains 26695 and
60190 are of the
vacA s1a/
m1 type, and strain Tx30a is of the
vacA s2/m2 type.

PCR amplification and DNA sequencing.
Primer sequences for the
H. pylori 16S rRNA gene (
14) and
vacA alleles (
1) used in this study are listed in Table
1. PCR amplification
was performed according to the following profile: 94°C for
2 min and 40 cycles of 94°C for 45 s, 55°C for 45 s,
and 72°C for 1 min, followed by 72°C for 7 min (Robocycler;
Stratagene Corp., La Jolla, Calif.). Optimal annealing temperatures
were determined by a thermal-gradient program. Some PCR-amplified
DNA fragments were cut from the agarose gel after electrophoresis
and purified with a concentrator column (Geneclean spin kit;
Bio 101, Vista, Calif.).
Sequencing was performed on both strands by the fluorescent
dideoxy terminator method (SequiTherm EXCELII, Epicentre Technologies,
Madison, Wis.). Electrophoresis was performed on an automated
DNA sequencer (model 4200; LI-COR), and sequences were analyzed
with
e-Seq DNA sequencing software 1.0 (LI-COR). Sequences were
aligned to the corresponding published sequences of
H. pylori American Type Culture Collection strains with the DNA analytical
software MacVector 6.5.3. We used previously published
vacA open reading frames from the following strains: 26695, 60190,
and Tx30a (
1,
4,
22).

H. pylori isolates and analyses.
A total of 37 out of 132 isolates (W1 to W132) were initially
selected as putative
H. pylori isolates. Selection was based
on four standard microbiological tests: Gram staining and urease,
oxidase, and catalase tests. Cell morphology was either that
of a rod, the shape of a coccus, or the shape of a coccobacillus.
The wastewater sample had approximately 10
7 total coliform and
10
3 E. coli organisms per 100 ml as enumerated by the membrane
filtration method. Treated water typically has between <10
3 and 0
E. coli organisms per 100 ml (
2).
A total of 23 out of 37 isolates were confirmed to be H. pylori by 16S rRNA PCR. Primers HP1 and HP2 amplified a 520-bp fragment from the H. pylori-positive control strains 26695, 60190, Tx30a, and NCTC 11639 and H. pylori wastewater isolates. As a negative control, three unrelated microorganisms (E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus) were chosen and tested with the same primers. HP1 and HP2 did not produce any PCR product from the negative controls.
The 16S rRNA-PCR DNA fragments from two randomly selected isolates (W10 and W100) and two control strains (26695 and 60190) were sequenced. The sequences of the fragments from H. pylori strains 26695 and 60190 were nearly identical to that of the published sequence (22). The nucleotide sequence of isolate W10 was identical to that of strain 26695, and that of isolate W100 was 99.8% homologous. The sizes of the PCR-amplified 16S rRNA fragments and confirmatory DNA sequencing indicated that W10 and W100 were true H. pylori isolates.

vaca alleles.
A set of primers, S1a-F and S-R, were employed to identify the
vacA s1a allele. We were able to completely genotype only 11
of the 23 isolates with respect to their
vacA genes due to difficulty
with primers binding to DNA templates after storage. Of these,
eight
H. pylori isolates were identified as
vacA s1a, and all
produced DNA fragments of the expected size, about 190 bp (Table
2). From the control and one wastewater isolate (W10),
s1a fragments
were sequenced for confirmation. The sequence of the
s1a fragment
from strain 26695 was identical to the published sequence (
22).
The sequence of the
s1a fragment from W10 was identical to that
of strain 26695.
Primers S1b-F and S-R were used to identify the
vacA s1b allele,
and one isolate (W22) was identified with a DNA fragment having
the expected size of about 180 bp (Table
2). Five
H. pylori isolates were identified as having the
vacA s2 allele; however,
two isolates, W96 and W116, produced larger PCR-amplified fragments
(250 bp) than expected (Table
2). Two isolates, W56 and W116,
were also identified as
vacA s1a. This finding suggested that
isolates W56 and W116 were mixed-genotype colonies or heterogeneous
for this allele.
Five isolates were identified as vacA m1 and had the expected PCR fragment size of 290 bp (Table 2). Four isolates, W41, W53, W56, and W115, produced amplified DNA fragments with sizes larger than 290 bp, ranging from 350 to 450 bp. Their large PCR products may be due to an insertion or nonspecific primer binding, but this was not confirmed by sequencing. Three isolates were identified as vacA m2 and had the expected PCR-amplified fragment size of about 350 bp. One of these three isolates, W56, contained both m1 and m2, as had been noted by other researchers (5).
The 16S rRNA PCR assay was shown to be accurate by sequencing of the PCR products of W10 and W100 and comparison of sequences with published 16S rRNA sequences for homology. Other studies (13, 17, 18) have performed PCR directly on gastric biopsy, stool, dental-plaque, or water samples. These studies leave open the question of whether results were inaccurate due to nonspecific primer binding and the presence of interfering substances in the PCR assay. In our research, these potential problems were avoided by isolating and culturing H. pylori, isolating DNAs from cultured cells, and then performing PCR on the purified DNAs. Not all isolates passing the initial microbiology tests could be confirmed by H. pylori 16S rRNA PCR. Tests on isolates that did not have positive 16S rRNA test results were repeated two times before we concluded that they were negative. The reason why some putative H. pylori isolates could not be confirmed by PCR was not further investigated.
H. pylori isolates from Ciudad Juárez wastewater demonstrated DNA heterogeneity with respect to the vacA gene. Nearly half of the 11 isolates that were fully typed had the vacA s1a/m1 genotype. This allelic combination has been reported to be associated most frequently with ulcer disease (8). It has also been reported that the s1b type is more prevalent in Central and South America than in the United States (23). Our finding that the s1a type is more prevalent may result from our examination of isolates from wastewater, rather than from the stomachs of patients examined by endoscopy, the source for most other studies. A possible explanation for this difference is that wastewater better captures the distribution of strain types in this combined symptomatic and asymptomatic population. A noteworthy finding was the observation of the allelic type s2/m1, which has been reported only recently (16, 20).
Review of the literature has not revealed other published studies that used PCR-based 16S rRNA and vacA genotyping on H. pylori water isolates. Based on this approach, our study demonstrated the culturability and identity of H. pylori in water samples and that this organism can survive several days in water. These findings suggested that with fecally contaminated waters, the potential exists for fecal-oral transmission of H. pylori via water.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Border Biomedical Research Center
grant G12-RR08124 from the NIH.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Texas, El Paso, TX 79968. Phone: (915) 747-6995. Fax: (915) 747-5808. E-mail:
thomasr{at}utep.edu.


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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2002, p. 1436-1439, Vol. 68, No. 3
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.3.1436-1439.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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