The amounts of Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in gut microbiota are reduced in patients with allergic diseases compared to healthy controls. We aimed to quantify levels of A. muciniphila and F. prausnitzii amounts using real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) in the gut microbiota of children with allergic asthma and in healthy controls. In total, 92 children between the ages of three and eight who were diagnosed with asthma and 88 healthy children were included in the study and bacterial DNA was isolated from the stool samples using the stool DNA isolation Kit. qPCR assays were studied with the microbial DNA qPCR Kit for A. muciniphila and microbial DNA qPCR Kit for F. prausnitzii. Both bacterial species showed a reduction in the patient group compared to healthy controls. A. muciniphila and F. prausnitzii were found to be 5.45±0.004, 6.74±0.01 and 5.71±0.002, 7.28±0.009 in the stool samples of the asthma and healthy control groups, respectively. F. prausnitzii and A. muciniphila may have induced anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and prevented the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-12. These findings suggest that A. muciniphila and F. prausnitzii may suppress inflammation through its secreted metabolites.

Geographic variation in the frequency of various gastroduodenal pathologies were shown to be related to the geographical diversity of H. pylori CagA Glu-Pro-Ile-Tyr-Ala (EPIYA) patterns. We examined the EPIYA patterns of H. pylori and the association of EPIYA patterns with gastric cancer (GC) for the first time in Turkey. Patient group (PG) contained 60 patients [38 GC and 22 duodenal ulcer (DU) patients]. Control group (CG) was 110 individuals [94 gastritis patients and 16 persons with normal gastrointestinal system (NGIS)]. Specific primers were used for the detection of cagA including empty-site-positive and EPIYA-A,-B,-C,-D PCR. Bands of EPIYA-A,-B,-C were confirmed by DNA sequencing. One hundred and forty two (83.5 %) strains [60 PG (38 GC, 22 DU), 82 CG (72 gastritis,10 NGIS)] were positive for cagA gene. The EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was detected in 34 (23.9 %) strains, and 22 (64.7 %) were from GC patients. EPIYA-C with one repeat was detected in 89 (62.7 %) strains and 54 (60.7 %) were from gastritis patients. EPIYT was detected in 10 strains, and EPIYA-D was not detected. The number of EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was significantly higher for PG than CG (p<0.0001). In GC patients, the number of EPIYA-C with multiple repeats was significantly higher than one repeat (p<0.0001). In conclusion, our study showed that multiple EPIYA-C repeats increased the GC risk 30.6-fold and the DU risk by 8.9-fold versus CG. This indicated that Western-type H. pylori strains in Turkey have similar EPIYA motifs as neighbouring countries and Western populations.