Inflammation, immunity, and vaccines for Helicobacter pylori infection.

The immune response to Helicobacter pylori is a multifaceted group of mechanisms involving responses that are both protective and damaging to the host. The innate and the adaptive immune responses lead to damaging inflammatory responses, but these responses may fail, allowing for persistence of many infections. Thus, developing new therapeutics and effective vaccines against H. pylori has proven to be arduous. In this manuscript, we will examine the advances in knowledge made in the past year in understanding the host immune response to H. pylori and the progress toward developing a vaccine.