Chlamydia trachomatis: The persistent pathogen.

Chlamydia trachomatis: The persistent pathogen. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2017 Aug 23;: Authors: Witkin SS, Minis E, Athanasiou A, Leizer J, Linhares IM Abstract Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium whose only natural host is man. Although asymptomatic in most women, genital tract chlamydial infections are a leading cause of pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal factor infertility and ectopic pregnancy. C. trachomatis has evolved successful mechanisms to avoid destruction by autophagy and the host immune system and persist within host epithelial cells. The intracellular form of this organism, the reticulate body, can enter into a persistent non-replicative but viable state under unfavorable conditions. The infectious form of the organism, the elementary body, is again generated when the immune attack subsides. In its persistent form C. trachomatis ceases to produce its major structural and membrane components, but synthesis of its 60kDa heat shock protein (hsp60) is greatly up-regulated and released from the cell. The immune response to hsp60, perhaps exacerbated by repeated cycles of productive infection and persistence, may promote damage to fallopian tube epithelial cells, scar formation and tubal occlusion. The chlamydial and human hsp60 proteins are very similar, and hsp60 is one of the first proteins produced by newly formed embryos. Thus, development of immunity to epitopes in the chlamydial hsp60 that are als...
Source: Clinical and Vaccine Immunology - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Clin Vaccine Immunol Source Type: research