ReviewCurrent topics in microbiology and immunology
The Treponema pallidum Outer Membrane.
Review in Current topics in microbiology and immunology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurosyphilis-Induced Psychosis in Europe: A Systematic Review of Case Reports.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Pooled it
- Putative mechanisms of ocular inflammation in syphilis.Journal of ophthalmic inflammation and infection · 2026Review
- Mechanisms, management and prevention of anorectal sexually transmitted infections.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Expanded Functional Characterization and Optimization of Protein Expression in Treponema denticola Shuttle Plasmids.Molecular oral microbiology · 2026Article
- TheJornal brasileiro de doencas sexualmente transmissiveis : DST · 2026Article
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- Article
- Neurosyphilis and Parkinsonism: Overlapping Pathophysiology and Emerging Therapeutic Insights.Current neurovascular research · 2026Review
- Review
- Protective immunity induced by Tp0136 epitope vaccines with mRNA LNP or protein delivery.NPJ vaccines · 2025Article
- Syphilis Pathogenesis: Host Immune Response vs Pathogen Immune Evasion.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Sequence variability of BamA and FadL candidate vaccinogens suggests divergent evolutionary paths ofJournal of bacteriology · 2025Article
- Update on syphilis diagnostics.Current opinion in infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Treponema denticola major surface protein (Msp): a key player in periodontal pathogenicity and immune evasion.Archives of microbiology · 2025Review
- Development and utilization ofmBio · 2025Article
- Antibodies directed against extracellular loops of FadL orthologs disrupt outer membrane integrity and neutralize infectivity ofFrontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- Participants inFrontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Immunodominant extracellular loops of Treponema pallidum FadL outer membrane proteins elicit antibodies with opsonic and growth-inhibitory activities.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Development and utilization ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- T-Cell Responses to Treponema pallidum Proteins in Blood and Skin to Advance Syphilis Vaccine Design: Learning From Nature.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The outer membrane (OM) of Treponema pallidum, the uncultivatable agent of venereal syphilis, has long been the subject of misconceptions and controversy. Decades ago, researchers postulated that T. pallidum's poor surface antigenicity is the basis for its ability to cause persistent infection, but they mistakenly attributed this enigmatic property to the presence of a protective outer coat of serum proteins and mucopolysaccharides. Subsequent studies revealed that the OM is the barrier to antibody binding, that it contains a paucity of integral membrane proteins, and that the preponderance of the spirochete's immunogenic lipoproteins is periplasmic. Since the advent of recombinant DNA technology, the fragility of the OM, its low protein content, and the lack of sequence relatedness between T. pallidum and Gram-negative outer membrane proteins (OMPs) have complicated efforts to characterize molecules residing at the host-pathogen interface. We have overcome these hurdles using the genomic sequence in concert with computational tools to identify proteins predicted to form β-barrels, the hallmark conformation of OMPs in double-membrane organisms and evolutionarily related eukaryotic organelles. We also have employed diverse methodologies to confirm that some candidate OMPs do, in fact, form amphiphilic β-barrels and are surface-exposed in T. pallidum. These studies have led to a structural homology model for BamA and established the bipartite topology of the T. pallidum repeat (Tpr) family of proteins. Recent bioinformatics has identified several structural orthologs for well-characterized Gram-negative OMPs, suggesting that the T. pallidum OMP repertoire is more Gram-negative-like than previously supposed. Lipoprotein adhesins and proteases on the spirochete surface also may contribute to disease pathogenesis and protective immunity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.