Infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae has been implicated as a potential risk factor for atherosclerosis. This study demonstrated the effects of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma)-mediated indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity on C. pneumoniae persistence in HEp-2 cells, inclusion morphology, and ultrastructure. C. pneumoniae replication showed a dose-dependent decrease when treated with increasing conc...

UNLABELLED Chronic cardiopathy (CC) in Chagas disease is a fibrotic myocarditis with C5b-9 complement deposition. Mycoplasma and Chlamydia may interfere with the complement response. Proteolytic enzymes and archaeal genes that have been described in Trypanosoma cruzi may increase its virulence. Here we tested the hypothesis that different ratios of Mycoplasma, Chlamydia and archaeal organisms, ...

The major outer membrane protein (MOMP) of Chlamydia trachomatis serovariants is known to be an immunodominant surface antigen. Moreover, it is known that the C. trachomatis MOMP elicits antibodies that recognize both linear and conformational antigenic determinants. In contrast, it has been reported that the MOMP of Chlamydia pneumoniae is not surface exposed and is immunorecessive. We hypothe...

OBJECTIVE Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae are known triggers of reactive arthritis (ReA) and exist in a persistent metabolically active infection state in the synovium, suggesting that they may be susceptible to antimicrobial agents. The goal of this study was to investigate whether a 6-month course of combination antibiotics is an effective treatment for patients...

References 1. Saikku P, Mattila K, Nieminen MS, Huttunen JL, Leinonen M, Ekman M-R, et al. Serological evidence of an association of a novel Chlamydia, TWAR, with chronic coronary heart disease and acute myocardial infarction. Lancet 1988;ii:983-5. 2. Saikku P. The epidemiology and significance of Chlamydia pneumoniae. J Infect 1992;25 Suppl I:27-34. 3. Saikku P, Leinonen M, Tenkanen L, Linnanm...

The controversial discussion about the role of Chlamydia pneumoniae in atherosclerosis cannot be solved without a reliable diagnosis that allows discrimination between past and persistent infections. Using a proteomic approach and immunoblotting with human sera, we identified 31 major C. pneumoniae Ags originating from 27 different C. pneumoniae proteins. More than half of the proteins represen...

A recent North American study detected Chlamydia pneumoniae in 17 of 19 brains of Alzheimer's patients and supposed a C. pneumoniae infection to be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we analyzed paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 20 AD patients by nested PCR and immunocytochemistry with a panel of antichlamydial antibodies and could detect neither C. pneumoniae-specific...

the possibility that infectious agents may trigger a cascade of reactions leading to inflammation, atherogenesis and vascular thrombotic events has recently been raised. chlamydia pneumoniae is an infectious agent that has received the most attention with respect to coronary artery disease (cad). to determine the relationship between c. pneumoniae and cad, a case control study was conducted on ...

BACKGROUND Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection is usually self-limited, but some fulminant cases are fatal, even when occurring in previously healthy individuals. It can also be the cause of overwhelming postsplenectomy infection (OPSI). CASE PRESENTATION We report a case of OPSI in a 41-year-old woman with hypersplenism associated with hepatitis B cirrhosis. We detected a significant Mycoplasma ...