H L Mobley, M J Cortesia, L E Rosenthal, B D Jones

Campylobacter pylori, a suspected agent of gastritis and peptic ulceration, rapidly hydrolyzes urea. Because urease serves as the basis of detection of the organism in gastric biopsies and may represent an important virulence factor, biochemical characteristics of the enzyme were determined. C. pylori was isolated from antral biopsies from 10 patients with complaints of abdominal pain or history of peptic ulcer disease. All isolates were urease positive, with an average rate of hydrolysis by cell lysates being 36 +/- 28 mumol of NH3 per min per mg of protein, more than twice that of Proteus mirabilis and 10 times that of other urinary tract isolates. The enzyme had an apparent molecular weight of 625,000 +/- 15,000 by column chromatography, an isoelectric point of 5.9, a Km of 0.8 +/- 0.1 mM urea, an optimal temperature of 45 degrees C, and an optimal pH of 8.2. Ten isolates tested produced ureases with identical electrophoretic mobilities on nondenaturing 5% polyacrylamide activity gels. Acetohydroxamic acid (100 micrograms/ml), hydroxyurea (85 micrograms/ml), flurofamide (0.05 micrograms/ml), and EDTA (8 mM) inhibited enzyme activity by 50%. Cell lysates retained 50% of initial urease activity after 6 days and 40% activity after 18 days when stored at 4 degrees C in 20 mM sodium phosphate, pH 6.8. At -70 degrees C for 18 days, 1 mM EDTA or 15% glycerol preserved 40 or 34%, respectively, of initial activity. The urease of C. pylori appears to be biochemically unique from the enzymes of other common urease-producing species.