infection: from standard to alternative treatment strategies.

is the major component of the gastric microbiome of infected individuals and one of the aetiological factors of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. The increasing resistance to antibiotics worldwide has made the treatment of infection a challenge. As a way to overhaul the efficacy of currently used antibiotic-based eradication therapies, alternative treatment strategies are being devised. These include probiotics and prebiotics as adjuvants in treatment, antimicrobial peptides as alternatives to antibiotics, photodynamic therapy ingestible devices, microparticles and nanoparticles applied as drug delivery systems, vaccines, natural products, and phage therapy. This review provides an updated synopsis of these emerging control strategies and discusses the advantages, hurdles, and challenges associated with their development and implementation. An effective human vaccine would be a major achievement although, until now, projects regarding vaccine development have failed or were discontinued. Numerous natural products have demonstrated anti- activity, mostly , but further clinical studies are needed to fully disclose their role in eradication. Finally, phage therapy has the potential to emerge as a valid alternative, but major challenges remain, namely the isolation of more strictly virulent bacterio(phages).