Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis serovars A-L3 are the causative agents of hyperendemic blinding trachoma, a largely neglected disease of the developing world, and sexually transmitted infections (STI) that are epidemic world wide. Chlamydial STI are risk factors for HIV and a cervical cancer co-factor. Control of these important human diseases is the long term goal of this project. Towards this end our goal is to develop a safe and efficacious vaccine to prevent these diseases. The obligate intracellular life style, complex developmental biology, and antigenic structure of chlamydiae have severally hindered progress in vaccine development. A major hurdle in chlamydial vaccine development has been the unavailability of antigens capable of providing broadly reactive protective immunity against the multiple serovariants (15) that cause oculogenital infections. The immediate goal of this work was to discover antigen(s) with characteristics amenable for the development of a broad based multi-strain vaccine against chlamydial infections and to test the candidates in pre-clinical models of infection and disease.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Investigator-Initiated Intramural Research Projects (ZIA)
Project #
1ZIAAI000672-17
Application #
7964341
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$682,024
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
Zip Code

  Publications

Marsh, James W; Wee, Bryan A; Tyndall, Joel D A et al. (2015) A Chlamydia trachomatis strain with a chemically generated amino acid substitution (P370L) in the cthtrA gene shows reduced elementary body production. BMC Microbiol 15:194
Bonner, Christine; Caldwell, Harlan D; Carlson, John H et al. (2015) Chlamydia trachomatis virulence factor CT135 is stable in vivo but highly polymorphic in vitro. Pathog Dis 73:ftv043
Porcella, Stephen F; Carlson, John H; Sturdevant, Daniel E et al. (2015) Transcriptional profiling of human epithelial cells infected with plasmid-bearing and plasmid-deficient Chlamydia trachomatis. Infect Immun 83:534-43
Yang, Chunfu; Starr, Tregei; Song, Lihua et al. (2015) Chlamydial Lytic Exit from Host Cells Is Plasmid Regulated. MBio 6:e01648-15
Sturdevant, Gail L; Caldwell, Harlan D (2014) Innate immunity is sufficient for the clearance of Chlamydia trachomatis from the female mouse genital tract. Pathog Dis 72:70-3
Sturdevant, Gail L; Zhou, Bing; Carlson, John H et al. (2014) Infectivity of urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis plasmid-deficient, CT135-null, and double-deficient strains in female mice. Pathog Dis 71:90-2
Olivares-Zavaleta, Norma; Whitmire, William M; Kari, Laszlo et al. (2014) CD8+ T cells define an unexpected role in live-attenuated vaccine protective immunity against Chlamydia trachomatis infection in macaques. J Immunol 192:4648-54
Kari, Laszlo; Bakios, Lauren E; Goheen, Morgan M et al. (2013) Antibody signature of spontaneous clearance of Chlamydia trachomatis ocular infection and partial resistance against re-challenge in a nonhuman primate trachoma model. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 7:e2248
Song, Lihua; Carlson, John H; Whitmire, William M et al. (2013) Chlamydia trachomatis plasmid-encoded Pgp4 is a transcriptional regulator of virulence-associated genes. Infect Immun 81:636-44
Southern, Timothy; Bess, Leah; Harmon, Jillian et al. (2012) Fluorometric high-throughput assay for measuring chlamydial neutralizing antibody. Clin Vaccine Immunol 19:1864-9

Showing the most recent 10 out of 19 publications