Work

Infectivity of a pathogenicity-attenuated Chlamydia muridarum mutant in the genital tract

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ector because it can induce protection in the genital tract following oral inoculation but does not elicit genital pathology following intravaginal infection. However, the mechanism of intrOv's attenuation is unclear. Here, we report that few live organisms were recovered from vaginal swabs during the early stage of intrOv intravaginal infection in mice. At a low inoculating dose, an isogenic wild-type control strain established a productive infection, while intrOv failed to do so. Although a higher inoculating dose allowed intrOv and its control to productively infect mice, fewer live intrOv than the control organisms were recovered from the lower genital tract tissues on day 3 post-infection. By day 7, animals infected with intrOv or the control shed similar numbers of live organisms, suggesting that intrOv's deficiency on day 3 was transient. Consistently, intrOv reduced invasion of epithelial cells but maintained as robust intracellular replication as its control. Our results correlate intrOv's delay in infecting the lower genital tissues and reduction in invading epithelial cells with its attenuation in genital pathogenicity, laying the foundation for further revealing the mechanisms of intrOv's attenuation in pathogenicity during genital tract infection.

Source: Infection and Immunity

DOI: 10.1128/iai.00588-24

Authors: Caiting Li, Zhaoyang Liu, Yaoqin Hua, Chunguang Ma, Guangming Zhong

Institutions: Sun Yat-sen University, The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University

Language: English

Topic: Reproductive tract infections research

Subfield: Microbiology

Field: Immunology and Microbiology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases