| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
From the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024
Abstract
Evidence for a humoral mechanism in immunity to experimental syphilis was provided by the demonstration of immune rabbit serum factor(s) capable of inactivating virulent Treponema pallidum, Nichols strain, in an in vitro-in vivo neutralization test. After intratesticular infection, rabbits were bled periodically and their resistance to reinfection was determined by challenge with T. pallidum. The results of challenge showed that resistance to reinfection begins to develop by 11 days after infection, becomes complete by 3 months, and persists for at least 2 years. In the neutralization test, a mixture of treponemal suspension and serum from the infected animals was incubated anaerobically at 34°C and the virulence of the treponemes was determined by intradermal inoculation into normal rabbits. Complete inactivation of treponemes by immune serum required heat-stable and heat-labile (56°C, 30 min) serum components and 16 hr of incubation, and was accelerated by pre-incubation of the treponemes for 4 hr with nonimmune serum but not by 100 µg/ml of added lysozyme. Serum-neutralizing activity, first demonstrable 1 month postinfection, was quantitated by a neutralizing endpoint (NEP). A relatively close quantitative correlation was shown between the development of resistance to symptomatic reinfection and the appearance and persistence of both TPI antibody and neutralizing serum factor(s). The nature of the serum factor(s), the mechanism of treponemal inactivation, and the application of the test in assessing the immune status are discussed.
Footnotes
1 This research was supported by Contracts N00014-69-A-0200-4039; NR 136-912 from the Office of Naval Research, 21-74-503 from the Center for Disease Control, United States Public Health Service, V3-181-26 from the World Health Organization, and Grant AI 12601-01 from the National Institutes of Health.
2 This work was presented in part at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Miami, Florida, May 10, 1973.
3 In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, University of California, Los Angeles. Predoctoral trainee supported by Training Grant AI 00249 from the United States Public Health Service.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  B. T. Leader, C. Godornes, W. C. VanVoorhis, and S. A. Lukehart CD4+ Lymphocytes and Gamma Interferon Predominate in Local Immune Responses in Early Experimental Syphilis Infect. Immun., June 1, 2007; 75(6): 3021 - 3026. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. E. LaFond and S. A. Lukehart Biological Basis for Syphilis Clin. Microbiol. Rev., January 1, 2006; 19(1): 29 - 49. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. R. Blanco, C. I. Champion, A. Dooley, D. L. Cox, J. P. Whitelegge, K. Faull, and M. A. Lovett A Monoclonal Antibody That Conveys In Vitro Killing and Partial Protection in Experimental Syphilis Binds a Phosphorylcholine Surface Epitope of Treponema pallidum Infect. Immun., May 1, 2005; 73(5): 3083 - 3095. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. T. Leader, K. Hevner, B. J. Molini, L. K. Barrett, W. C. Van Voorhis, and S. A. Lukehart Antibody Responses Elicited against the Treponema pallidum Repeat Proteins Differ during Infection with Different Isolates of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum Infect. Immun., October 1, 2003; 71(10): 6054 - 6057. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. R. Blanco, C. I. Champion, M. A. Lewinski, E. S. Shang, S. G. Simkins, J. N. Miller, and M. A. Lovett Immunization with Treponema pallidum Outer Membrane Vesicles Induces High-Titer Complement-Dependent Treponemicidal Activity and Aggregation of T. pallidum Rare Outer Membrane Proteins (TROMPs) J. Immunol., September 1, 1999; 163(5): 2741 - 2746. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. A. Lewinski, J. N. Miller, M. A. Lovett, and D. R. Blanco Correlation of Immunity in Experimental Syphilis with Serum-Mediated Aggregation of Treponema pallidum Rare Outer Membrane Proteins Infect. Immun., July 1, 1999; 67(7): 3631 - 3636. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Centurion-Lara, C. Castro, L. Barrett, C. Cameron, M. Mostowfi, W. C. Van Voorhis, and S. A. Lukehart Treponema pallidum Major Sheath Protein Homologue Tpr K Is a Target of Opsonic Antibody and the Protective Immune Response J. Exp. Med., February 15, 1999; 189(4): 647 - 656. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
