Experimental Ocular Syphilis and Neurosyphilis

Abstract

The challenge in clinical syphilis today is the detection of the disease in the sero-negative patient. The magnitude of this problem is evident when one considers that over 100 cases of ocular syphilis and neurosyphilis have been encountered in this institution within the past year (Smith, 1964; Smith and Moore, 1964; Smith and Taylor, 1965). Of paramount importance is the fact that the majority of these patients were non-reactive to the standard reagin tests for syphilis. Diagnosis was established by the following criteria: (1) history of infection and inadequate treatment; (2) clinical signs of the disease-as optic atrophy, pupillary changes, and the like-and (3) reactive Treponemapallidum immobilization (TPI) and/or fluorescent treponemal antibody absorbed (FTA-ABS) tests on the peripheral blood (Deacon, Falcone, and Harris, 1957; Deacon, Freeman, and Harris, 1960; Deacon and Hunter, 1962). A combined clinical and experimental study was therefore undertaken in collaboration with the

Serological Reactions with Treponemal Antigens in Nonhuman Primates and the Natural History of Treponematosis in Man

“…More recently this organism has been transmitted from man to Aotus trivirgatus (South American owl monkey) in the laboratory [Smith et al" 1965;C lark and Y obs, 1968;E lsas et al. 1968], Only a few lesions developed after infection.…”

Observations of the pathogenesis of syphilis in Aotus trivirgatus.

“…We have not found an early report of the use of the owl monkey-Aotus trivirgatus-a small nocturnal primate native to South America. In a previously published cooperative study of ocular syphilis and neurosyphilis (Smith, Singer, Reynolds, Moore, Yobs, and Clark, 1965), this monkey was used as the animal model because of its phylogenetic proximity to man, its large eyes in relation to a diminutive body size, and its availability. Findings in that study, as well as the phylogenetic position of the A. trivirgatus, interested us in further investigation of experimental syphilis in the species.…”