Repeat infections with chlamydia in women may be more transcriptionally active with lower responses from some immune genes

Wilhelmina M. Huston; Amba Lawrence; Bryan A. Wee; Mark Thomas; Peter Timms; Lenka A. Vodstrcil; Anna McNulty; Ruthy McIvor; Karen Worthington; Basil Donovan; Samuel Phillips; Marcus Y. Chen; Christopher K. Fairley; Jane S. Hocking

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.1012835

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Repeat infections with chlamydia in women may be more transcriptionally active with lower responses from some immune genes

Journal article

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Repeat infections with chlamydia in women may be more transcriptionally active with lower responses from some immune genes

Wilhelmina M. Huston, Amba Lawrence, Bryan A. Wee, Mark Thomas, Peter Timms, Lenka A. Vodstrcil, Anna McNulty, Ruthy McIvor, Karen Worthington, Basil Donovan, …

Frontiers in Public Health, Vol.10, pp.1-13

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1012835

PMCID: PMC9589431

PMID: 36299763

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Abstract

antibiotic

azithromycin

Chlamydia

gene expression

genomics

repeat infections

sexually transmitted infection

Chlamydia trachomatis, the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection worldwide, is responsible for considerable health burden due to its significant sequelae. There are growing concerns about chlamydial treatment and management due to widely documented increasing burden of repeat infections. In the current study, a cohort study design of 305 women with urogenital chlamydial infections demonstrated that 11.8% of women experienced repeat infections after treatment with azithromycin. The chlamydial DNA load measured by quantitative PCR was higher in women who experienced a repeat infection (p = 0.0097) and repeat infection was associated with sexual contact. There was no genomic or phenotypic evidence of azithromycin resistance within the chlamydial isolates. During repeat infection, or repeat positive tests during follow up, vaginal chlamydial gene expression (ompA, euo, omcB, htrA, trpAB) was markedly higher compared to baseline, and two of the selected immune genes analyzed had significantly lower expression at the time of repeat infection. Overall, there are two implications of these results. The results could be generalized to all recent infections, or repeat positive events, and indicate that chlamydial infections are have higher transcriptional activity of select genes early in the infection in women. Alternatively, after azithromycin treatment, repeat infections of Chlamydia may be more transcriptionally active at certain genes, and there may be post treatment immunological alterations that interplay into repeat exposures establishing an active infection. The potential that recent infections may involve a higher level of activity from the organism may have implications for management by more regular testing of the most at risk women to reduce the risk of sequelae.

Details

Title: Repeat infections with chlamydia in women may be more transcriptionally active with lower responses from some immune genes
Authors: Wilhelmina M. Huston (Corresponding Author) - University of Technology Sydney
Amba Lawrence (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Bryan A. Wee (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Mark Thomas (Author) - University of Technology Sydney
Peter Timms (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Bioinnovation
Lenka A. Vodstrcil (Author) - Monash University
Anna McNulty (Author) - Sydney Sexual Health Centre
Ruthy McIvor (Author) - Sydney Sexual Health Centre
Karen Worthington (Author) - Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
Basil Donovan (Author) - UNSW Australia
Samuel Phillips (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for Bioinnovation
Marcus Y. Chen (Author) - The University of Melbourne
Christopher K. Fairley (Author) - Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
Jane S. Hocking (Author) - The University of Melbourne
Publication details: Frontiers in Public Health, Vol.10, pp.1-13
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1012835
ISSN: 2296-2565
PMID: 36299763; PMC9589431
Copyright note: © 2022 Huston, Lawrence, Wee, Thomas, Timms, Vodstrcil, McNulty, McIvor, Worthington, Donovan, Phillips, Chen, Fairley and Hocking. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Grant note: National Health and Medical Research Council Project / APP1023239
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99682998002621
Output Type: Journal article

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