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Standard therapy for treating Helicobacter pylori infection typically includes ampicillin, a second antibiotic, and a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI). However, the effectiveness of this regimen has been decreasing with increasing antibiotic resistance. Because ampicillin acts on bacterial cell walls and requires actively dividing bacteria to be effective, investigators examined whether H. pylori growth — and, consequently, ampicillin effectiveness — was affected by gastric pH level.
H. pylori were incubated in dialysis chambers with 5 mM urea and varying pH levels with or without ampicillin for 4, 8, or 16 hours. Changes in the expression of genes associated with bacterial growth, viability, and survival were determined.
Ampicillin was bactericid…