ArticleJournal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)2010
Antigenic variation in Treponema pallidum: TprK sequence diversity accumulates in response to immune pressure during experimental syphilis.
Article in Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950), 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk factors of serofast state in patients undergoing syphilis: a meta-analysis of 17 cohort studies.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Mechanisms, management and prevention of anorectal sexually transmitted infections.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Lineage-specificbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Review
- Sequence variability of BamA and FadL candidate vaccinogens suggests divergent evolutionary paths ofJournal of bacteriology · 2025Article
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- Time-course transcriptomics reveals the impact ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Participants inFrontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Syphilis vaccine development: Aligning vaccine design with manufacturing requirements.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Article
- Molecular investigation ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Article
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- Proteomic analysis of theFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Resurgence of syphilis: focusing on emerging clinical strategies and preclinical models.Journal of translational medicine · 2023Review
- Deep proteome coverage advances knowledge of Treponema pallidum protein expression profiles during infection.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Longitudinal Variations in theMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Advancements in the development of nucleic acid vaccines for syphilis prevention and control.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Review
- Genetic Profiling of the Full-LengthMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Review
- Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum with an Artificially impaired TprK antigenic variation system is attenuated in the Rabbit model of syphilis.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Pathogens that cause chronic infections often employ antigenic variation to evade the immune response and persist in the host. In Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum), the causative agent of syphilis, the TprK Ag undergoes variation of seven V regions (V1-V7) by nonreciprocal recombination of silent donor cassettes with the tprK expression site. These V regions are the targets of the host humoral immune response during experimental infection. The present study addresses the causal role of the acquired immune response in the selection of TprK variants in two ways: 1) by investigating TprK variants arising in immunocompetent versus immunosuppressed hosts; and 2) by investigating the effect of prior specific immunization on selection of TprK variants during infection. V region diversity, particularly in V6, accumulates more rapidly in immunocompetent rabbits than in pharmacologically immunosuppressed rabbits (treated with weekly injections of methylprednisolone acetate). In a complementary experiment, rabbits preimmunized with V6 region synthetic peptides had more rapid accumulation of V6 variant treponemes than control rabbits. These studies demonstrate that the host immune response selects against specific TprK epitopes expressed on T. pallidum, resulting in immune selection of new TprK variants during infection, confirming a role for antigenic variation in syphilis.
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