ArticleInfection and immunity2010
Opacity proteins increase Neisseria gonorrhoeae fitness in the female genital tract due to a factor under ovarian control.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Terminal complement complexes with or without C9 potentiate antimicrobial activity againstmBio · 2025Article
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae co-opts C4b-binding protein to enhance complement-independent survival from neutrophils.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Immune responses toFrontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Mechanisms of host manipulation byFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Variable Expression of Opa Proteins by Neisseria gonorrhoeae Influences Bacterial Association and Phagocytic Killing by Human Neutrophils.Journal of bacteriology · 2022Article
- Anti-Virulence Therapeutic Approaches forAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Progesterone SuppressesFrontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae MlaA influences gonococcal virulence and membrane vesicle production.PLoS pathogens · 2019Article
- Progress Toward a Gonococcal Vaccine: The Way Forward.Frontiers in immunology · 2019Review
- Human Factor H Domains 6 and 7 Fused to IgG1 Fc Are Immunotherapeutic againstJournal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2018Article
- Investigating Potential Chromosomal Rearrangements during Laboratory Culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.Microorganisms · 2018Article
- Pathogenesis ofFrontiers in immunology · 2018Review
- Lipid-Modified Azurin ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2018Article
- Article
- Deciphering the Function of New Gonococcal Vaccine Antigens Using Phenotypic Microarrays.Journal of bacteriology · 2017Article
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae infects the human endocervix by activating non-muscle myosin II-mediated epithelial exfoliation.PLoS pathogens · 2017Article
- Gonorrhea - an evolving disease of the new millennium.Microbial cell (Graz, Austria) · 2016Review
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae Modulates Cell Death in Human Endocervical Epithelial Cells through Export of Exosome-Associated cIAP2.Infection and immunity · 2015Article
- Opa+ Neisseria gonorrhoeae exhibits reduced survival in human neutrophils via Src family kinase-mediated bacterial trafficking into mature phagolysosomes.Cellular microbiology · 2015Article
- Expression of Opacity Proteins Interferes with the Transmigration of Neisseria gonorrhoeae across Polarized Epithelial Cells.PloS one · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The neisserial opacity (Opa) proteins are a family of antigenically distinct outer membrane proteins that undergo phase-variable expression. Opa(+) variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain FA1090 are selected in a cyclical pattern from the lower genital tract of estradiol-treated mice. Here we show that cyclical recovery of Opa(+) gonococci does not occur in ovariectomized mice; therefore, the reproductive cycle plays a role in the selection kinetics in vivo. As predicted by the selection pattern shown by wild-type gonococci, we demonstrated that a constitutive Opa-expressing strain was more fit than an Opa-deficient mutant in the early and late phases of infection. We found no evidence that Opa-mediated colonization selects for Opa(+) variants during murine infection based on adherence assays with cultured murine epithelial cells. We also tested the hypothesis that complement selects for Opa protein expression during infection. Although some Opa(+) variants of a serum-sensitive derivative of strain FA1090 were more resistant to the bactericidal activity of normal human serum, selection for Opa expression was not abrogated in C3-depleted mice. Finally, as previously reported, Opa(+) gonococci were more sensitive to serine proteases. Thus, proteases or protease inhibitors may contribute to the observed in vivo selection pattern. We concluded that Opa proteins promote persistence of N. gonorrhoeae in the female genital tract and that opa gene phase variation allows gonococci to evade or capitalize upon unidentified host factors of the mammalian reproductive cycle. This work revealed an intimate interaction between pathogen and host and provides evidence that hormonally related factors shape bacterial adaptation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.