The Cyclopropane Fatty Acid Synthase Mediates Antibiotic Resistance and Gastric Colonization of Helicobacter pylori

The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistantHelicobacter pylori strains has created an urgent need for alternative therapeutic regimens that complement the current antibiotic treatment strategies forH. pylori eradication; however, this is greatly hampered due to a lack of “druggable” targets. Although the CFAs are present inH. pylori cytoplasmic membranes at high levels, their physiological role has not been established. In this report, deletion of the CFA synthase CfaS was shown to attenuate acid and drug resistance, immune escape, and gastric colonization ofH. pylori . These findings were validated by inhibition of the CfaS activity with the tool compound dioctylamine. These studies identify this enzyme as an attractive target for further drug discovery efforts againstH. pylori .