Red Fluorescent Chlamydia trachomatis Applied to Live Cell Imaging and Screening for Antibacterial Agents

In this study, we describe the application of a transformed Chlamydia trachomatis strain constitutively expressing the red fluorescent protein mCherry, to allow real-time monitoring of the infection cycle and screening for agents that block replication of C. trachomatis. The red fluorescent C. trachomatis strain was detected autonomously without antibody staining and was equally susceptible to doxycycline as the wild type strain. A high-throughput screening assay was developed using the transformed strain and automated fluorescence microscopy. The assay was used in a pilot screen of a 349 compound library containing natural products from Australian flora and fauna. Compounds with anti-chlamydial activity were tested for dose response and toxicity to host cells and two non-toxic compounds had 50% effective concentration (EC50) values in the low micromolar range. Natural products are valuable sources for drug discovery and the identified Chlamydia growth inhibition may be starting points for future drug development. Live cell imaging was used to visualize growth of the red fluorescent C. trachomatis strain over time. The screening assay reduced workload and reagents compared to an assay requiring immunostaining and could further be used to monitor the development of Chlamydia inclusions and anti-chlamydial effect in real time

Methyl sulfonamide substituents improve the pharmacokinetic properties of bicyclic 2-pyridone based:Chlamydia trachomatis inhibitors

Chlamydia trachomatis infections are a global health problem and new approaches to treat C. trachomatis with drugs of high specificity would be valuable. A library of substituted ring fused 2-pyridones has been synthesized and evaluated for their ability to attenuate C. trachomatis infectivity. In vivo pharmacokinetic studies were performed, with the best candidates demonstrating that a C8-methylsulfonamide substituent improved pharmacokinetic properties important for oral administration. C8-Methyl sulfonamide analogue 30 inhibited C. trachomatis infectivity in low micromolar concentrations. Further pharmacokinetic evaluation at an oral dose of 10 mg kg(-1) showed an apparent bioavailability of 41%, compared to C8-cyclopropyl and -methoxy analogues which had negligible oral uptake. In vitro ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) testing of solubility and Caco-2 cell permeability revealed that both solubility and permeability is greatly improved with the C8-methyl sulfonamide 30, effectively moving it from BCS (Biopharmaceutical Classification System) class IV to II

Inhibitory activity of the isoflavone Biochanin A on intracellular bacteria of genus Chlamydia and initial development of a buccal formulation

Peer reviewe

Role of birds in the biology of Lyme disease Borrelia

Lyme disease is a tick-transmitted illness caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), a group of spirochetes with at least three human pathogenic species, B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, B. afzelii and B. garinii. These spirochetes cycle between vertebrate reservoirs, mainly rodents, and ixodid ticks. Both terrestrial birds and seabirds can be infected with B. burgdorferi s.l. but the function of birds as reservoirs is largely unknown, even though they are potentially important epidemiologically due to their ability to carry ectoparasites and microorganisms over long distances. This thesis describes the role of birds in Lyme disease Borrelia biology in general and Borrelia ecology and epidemiology in particular. B. burgdorferi s.l. has previously been detected in the seabird tick Ixodes uriae and an enzootic Borrelia cycle distinct from terrestrial Borrelia cycles has been described. In this study B. garinii was isolated from the proposed seabird reservoirs and the tick I. uriae infesting them. The strains isolated did not show evident differences from human pathogenic B. garinii strains, indeed 7/8 strains had an ospC allele associated with Borrelia causing disseminated Lyme disease. Antibodies against B. burgdorferi s.l. were detected in people frequently bitten by I. uriae. Thus the marine enzootic Borrelia cycle may be a risk for humans, either by direct transfer of the spirochete from /. uriae or via introduction of Borrelia into a terrestrial enzootic Borrelia cycle. In order to investigate the role of passerine (Passeriformes) birds as amplification hosts in the terrestrial Borrelia cycle, experimental infections of canary finches (Serinus canaria) and redwing thrushes (Turdus iliacus) were carried out. The result showed that B. burgdorferi s.l. can persist for several months in passerine birds and the infection in redwing thrushes can be reactivated in response to migration. Thus, birds may be more infectious to ticks during their migration and therefore important long-range disseminators of B. burgdorferi s.l. Migration in birds is associated with elevated stress hormones that in turn can cause reactivation of latent infections. Lyme disease in humans could perhaps be activated when the immune response is modulated by stress. Herein I describe a patient with a stress activated latent Borrelia infection, which supports this hypothesis. The seabird tick I. uriae has a circumpolar distribution in both the northern and southern hemispheres and in this study identical B. garinii flagellin gene (flaB) sequences were detected in I. uriae from these hemispheres, indicating a transequatorial transport of B. garinii. Parsimony analysis of I. uriae ITS2 and 16S rDNA sequences suggested that northern and southern I. uriae might be reproductively separated. Therefore passive transport of infected ticks between the polar regions is unlikely and instead seabirds probably carry an active Borrelia infection during their migration. In conclusion, this work shows that migrating seabirds and passerine birds probably are important for the long-range dispersal of B. burgdorferi s.l., and that this mechanism of dispersal could be important for the distribution of human Lyme disease.Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2001, härtill 6 uppsatserdigitalisering@um

Mosquitoborne Sindbis Virus Infection and Long-Term Illness

An unexpected human outbreak of the mosquitoborne Sindbis virus occurred in a previously nonendemic area of Sweden. At follow-up, 6-8 months after infection, 39% of patients had chronic arthralgia that affected their daily activities. Vectorborne infections may disseminate rapidly into new areas and cause acute and chronic disease

Phospholipid Levels in Blood during Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Phospholipids, major constituents of bilayer cell membranes, are present in large amounts in pulmonary surfactant and play key roles in cell signaling. Here, we aim at finding clinically useful disease markers in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) using comprehensive phospholipid profiling in blood and modeling of changes between sampling time points. Serum samples from 33 patients hospitalized with CAP were collected at admission, three hours after the start of intravenous antibiotics, Day 1 (at 12–24 h), Day 2 (at 36–48 h), and several weeks after recovery. A profile of 75 phospholipid species including quantification of the bioactive lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) was determined using liquid chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. To control for possible enzymatic degradation of LPCs, serum autotaxin levels were examined. Twenty-two of the 33 patients with a clinical diagnosis of CAP received a laboratory-verified CAP diagnosis by microbial culture or microbial DNA detection by qPCR. All major phospholipid species, especially the LPCs, were pronouncedly decreased in the acute stage of illness. Total and individual LPC concentrations increased shortly after the initiation of antibiotic treatment, concentrations were at their lowest 3h after the initiation, and increased after Day 1. The total LPC concentration increased by a change ratio of 1.6–1.7 between acute illness and Day 2, and by a ratio of 3.7 between acute illness and full disease resolution. Autotaxin levels were low in acute illness and showed little changes over time, contradicting a hypothesis of enzymatic degradation causing the low levels of LPCs. In this sample of patients with CAP, the results demonstrate that LPC concentration changes in serum of patients with CAP closely mirrored the early transition from acute illness to recovery after the initiation of antibiotics. LPCs should be further explored as potential disease stage biomarkers in CAP and for their potential physiological role during recovery.Originally included in thesis in manuscript form </p

Red Fluorescent Chlamydia trachomatis Applied to Live Cell Imaging and Screening for Antibacterial Agents

In this study, we describe the application of a transformed Chlamydia trachomatis strain constitutively expressing the red fluorescent protein mCherry, to allow real-time monitoring of the infection cycle and screening for agents that block replication of C. trachomatis. The red fluorescent C. trachomatis strain was detected autonomously without antibody staining and was equally susceptible to doxycycline as the wild type strain. A high-throughput screening assay was developed using the transformed strain and automated fluorescence microscopy. The assay was used in a pilot screen of a 349 compound library containing natural products from Australian flora and fauna. Compounds with anti-chlamydial activity were tested for dose response and toxicity to host cells and two non-toxic compounds had 50% effective concentration (EC50) values in the low micromolar range. Natural products are valuable sources for drug discovery and the identified Chlamydia growth inhibition may be starting points for future drug development. Live cell imaging was used to visualize growth of the red fluorescent C. trachomatis strain over time. The screening assay reduced workload and reagents compared to an assay requiring immunostaining and could further be used to monitor the development of Chlamydia inclusions and anti-chlamydial effect in real time

Natural product inspired library synthesis – Identification of 2,3-diarylbenzofuran and 2,3-dihydrobenzofuran based inhibitors of Chlamydia trachomatis

A natural product inspired library was synthesized based on 2,3-diarylbenzofuran and 2,3-diaryl-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran scaffolds. The library of forty-eight compounds was prepared by utilizing Pd-catalyzed one-pot multicomponent reactions and ruthenium-catalyzed intramolecular carbenoid C-H insertions. The compounds were evaluated for antibacterial activity in a panel of test systems including phenotypic, biochemical and image-based screening assays. We identified several potent inhibitors that block intracellular replication of pathogenic Chlamydia trachomatis with IC50 ≤ 3 μM. These new C. trachomatis inhibitors can serve as starting points for the development of specific treatments that reduces the global burden of C. trachomatis infections

High prevalence of pharyngeal bacterial pathogens among healthy adolescents and young adults

The pharyngeal mucosa can be colonized with bacteria that have potential to cause pharyngotonsillitis. By the use of culturing techniques and PCR, we aimed to assess the prevalence of bacterial pharyngeal pathogens among healthy adolescents and young adults. We performed a cross-sectional study in a community-based cohort of 217 healthy individuals between 16 and 25 years of age. Samples were analyzed for Group A streptococci (GAS), Group C/G streptococci (SDSE), Fusobacterium necrophorum, and Arcanobacterium haemolyticum. Compared to culturing, the PCR method resulted in more frequent detection, albeit in most cases with low levels of DNA, of GAS (20/217 vs. 5/217; p &lt; 0.01) and F. necrophorum (20/217 vs. 8/217; p &lt; 0.01). Culturing and PCR yielded similar rates of SDSE detection (14/217 vs. 12/217; p = 0.73). Arcanobacterium haemolyticum was rarely detected (3/217), and only by PCR. Overall, in 25.3% (55/217) of these healthy adolescents and young adults at least one of these pathogens was detected, a rate that is higher than previously described. Further studies are needed before clinical adoption of PCR-based detection methods for pharyngeal bacterial pathogens, as our findings suggest a high incidence of asymptomatic carriage among adolescents and young adults without throat infections

High prevalence of pharyngeal bacterial pathogens among healthy adolescents and young adults

The pharyngeal mucosa can be colonized with bacteria that have potential to cause pharyngotonsillitis. By the use of culturing techniques and PCR, we aimed to assess the prevalence of bacterial pharyngeal pathogens among healthy adolescents and young adults. We performed a cross-sectional study in a community-based cohort of 217 healthy individuals between 16 and 25 years of age. Samples were analyzed for Group A streptococci (GAS), Group C/G streptococci (SDSE), Fusobacterium necrophorum, and Arcanobacterium haemolyticum. Compared to culturing, the PCR method resulted in more frequent detection, albeit in most cases with low levels of DNA, of GAS (20/217 vs. 5/217; p &lt; 0.01) and F. necrophorum (20/217 vs. 8/217; p &lt; 0.01). Culturing and PCR yielded similar rates of SDSE detection (14/217 vs. 12/217; p = 0.73). Arcanobacterium haemolyticum was rarely detected (3/217), and only by PCR. Overall, in 25.3% (55/217) of these healthy adolescents and young adults at least one of these pathogens was detected, a rate that is higher than previously described. Further studies are needed before clinical adoption of PCR-based detection methods for pharyngeal bacterial pathogens, as our findings suggest a high incidence of asymptomatic carriage among adolescents and young adults without throat infections