Syphilis is a systemic infectious disease caused by sexual or congenital transmission of the bacterium Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum). Syphilis causes a variety of symptoms corresponding to stages of infection (primary, secondary, tertiary) and no symptoms during latent stages. Late-stage syphilis includes gummatous, cardiovascular, and neurological complications that can lead to significant ...

A maintenance medium for Treponema pallidum was designed to hold its Eh at the optimum for that organism, -10 to -110 mV. After 100% motile (freshly harvested) T. pallidum was inoculated into the medium, the motility of the treponemes decreased to 80% after 2 days, 50% after 3.5 days, and 0% after 9 days during incubation at 34 C. Full virulence was retained for 2 days, but it dropped rapidly t...

Using the fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption (FTA-ABS) test and the solid phase haemadsorption assay (SPHA) Treponema pallidum-specific IgA was found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with neurosyphilis but not in those with late latent syphilis. The presence of T pallidum-specific IgA in the CSF may inhibit the antitreponemal activity of IgG and thus play some part in the pa...

In 76% of 149 patients with neurosyphilis local production of treponema-specific IgG antibodies in the central nervous system (CNS) was determined by estimating the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-to-serum ratio of TPHA-IgG titre per mg total IgG. With this formula synthesis of treponema-specific IgG antibodies in the CNS could be detected independently of the function of the blood-CSF barrier. A sel...

A viscous mucoid fluid occasionally accumulates after intratesticular inoculation of rabbits with Treponema pallidum. Experiments were performed to assess the effects of this testicular fluid on the development of syphilitic lesions. Intramuscular injections of this fluid altered host defences as indicated by shorter incubation periods, by reactivation of healing lesions, and by the presence of...

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed to enumerate Treponema pallidum cells. The assay could detect from 2 X 10(7) to 4 X 10(8) treponemes per ml. Reactive rabbit serum and goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G (peroxidase conjugate) were used in the assay. Optimum results were obtained when 2,2'-azino-di(ethylbenzthiazolinesulfonic acid) was used as the dye for the enzyme reaction and...

The passage of Treponema pallidum through commercially available Millipore membrane filters of various pore sizes was examined. No microscopically detectable organisms passed through a filter with a pore diameter of 0.22 mum. As pore size was increased, progressively more organisms passed through. Motile organisms passed through filters to a greater extent than nonmotile ones; however, 22% of t...

The nucleotide sequence of the Treponema pallidum mcp2 gene was determined. mcp2 encodes a 45.8-kDa protein whose deduced amino acid sequence has significant homology with the C-terminal region of bacterial methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs). The Mcp2 N terminus lacks the hydrophobic transmembrane regions present in most MCPs. An Mcp2 fusion protein was strongly reactive with antibody ...

During the past decade or so, the incidence of syphilis has increased in most parts of the world. In some urban regions, a coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus is disclosed in nearly 50% of the cases. Owing to the polymorphism of the lesions, the clinical diagnosis may be puzzling. The homing patterns and migration paths of Treponema pallidum in the skin during early syphilis represent...

Treponema pallidum strain DAL-1 is a human uncultivable pathogen causing the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. Strain DAL-1 was isolated from the amniotic fluid of a pregnant woman in the secondary stage of syphilis. Here we describe the 1,139,971 bp long genome of T. pallidum strain DAL-1 which was sequenced using two independent sequencing methods (454 pyrosequencing and Illumina). In ra...