In vitro studies of these locally persisting organisms show they are resistant to opsonophagocytosis by macrophages [54], and unraveling the possible mechanisms of immune evasion is critical to understanding the lifetime chronicity of syphilis infection. selleckchem Following spontaneous resolution of the symptoms of early syphilis, infection becomes

asymptomatic and a period of chronic infection, called “latency,” is established. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the ability of treponemes to persist, including location in an “immunoprotective niche” [55] such as the central nervous system, the eye, or inside cells other than professional phagocytes. An additional factor that likely contributes to the remarkable persistence of T. pallidum is the reported Selleck INK-128 paucity of proteins presented on the treponemal surface. Freeze-fracture electron microscopy studies initially demonstrated low densities of integral membrane proteins in the OM [56] and [57], and this was confirmed by recent high-resolution cryo electron tomography

[58] and [59] and scanning probe microscopy [58]. The low density of integral outer membrane proteins (OMPs), and presumably limited antigenic targets, are thought to play an important role in T. pallidum’s abililty to evade functional immune responses, thus facilitating treponemal persistence [36] and [60]. A newly recognized factor that is likely to facilitate immune evasion and persistence of T. pallidum is the demonstration of antigenic diversity and oxyclozanide variation amongst the T. pallidum repeat (Tpr) protein family, a subset of which are thought to be located on the treponemal surface [61], [62] and [63] ( Table 1).

Two types of antigenic variation have recently been discovered in T. pallidum: 1) Phase variation, or ON/OFF expression, of TprE, G, and J occurs by alteration in the lengths of polyG tracts in the promoter region of the genes [64]; 2) Sequence variation of discrete regions of TprK is seen among, and even within, strains [65]. Variation occurs by segmented gene conversion in which segments of new sequence obtained from over 50 chromosomal donor sites can replace portions of 7 variable (V) regions in the tprK open reading frame [66]. Sequence variation in V regions results in proteins with altered binding by specific antibodies [67], and immune pressure during infection selects for new variant organisms expressing unique TprK V region sequences [63]. Other members of the Tpr family, TprC and D, have heterogeneity in their sequences among strains and subspecies, but these TprC and D sequences appear to be unchanging during the course of infection. The localization of these diverse regions to predicted surface-exposed loops [68] and the recognition that TprC is a target of opsonic antibodies [62] may help to account in part for the well-recognized observation that persons can be infected with syphilis multiple times, possibly with strains expressing different TprC or D sequences.