EVALUATION OF COMBINED ANTIBIOTIC-OMEPRAZOLE THERAPIES IN HELICOBACTER PYLORI-INFECTED MONGOLIAN GERBILS

Mongolian gerbils are a laboratory host for gastric colonization with Helicobacter pylori, showing gastritis followed by typical gastric ulc er after infection with H. pylori. In such gerbils, we evaluated combi ned therapies of amoxicillin (AMPC) and clarithromycin (CAM) as antibi otics, and omeprazole (OPZ) as a H+/K+ adenosine triphosphatase (ATPas e) inhibitor. The gerbils were orally inoculated with 2 X 10(8) bacill i of H. pylori ATCC 43504. Four weeks after inoculation, the infected gerbils were orally treated singly with OPZ, AMPC, and CAM, and their insufficient efficacy on bacterial clearance was confirmed by a polyme rase chain reaction technique, and by a culture method. In contrast, c ombined therapy of OPZ plus either AMPC or CAM showed significant bact erial clearance, demonstrating the efficacy of this combined therapy i n the gerbil model. Mongolian gerbils are suggested to be useful for t he pharmacological evaluation of anti-H. pylori compounds.