The anti-chlamydial activity of defensin-like proteins

Abstract

Even in asymptomatic cases of Chlamydia trachomatis infection, the aim of the antibiotic strategy is eradication of the pathogen so as to avoid the severe late sequelae, such as pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and tubal infertility. Although first-line antimicrobial agents have been demonstrated to be predominantly successful in the treatment of C. trachomatis infection, treatment failures have been observed in some cases. Rich source of antimicrobial peptides was recently discovered in Medicago species, which act in plants as differentiation factors of the endosymbiotic bacterium partner. Several of these symbiotic plant peptides have proved to be potent killers of various bacteria in vitro. We show here that 7 of 11 peptides tested exhibited antimicrobial activity against C. trachomatis D, and that the killing activity of these peptides is most likely due to their interaction with specific bacterial targets.

Chlamydiosis in Human

“…1984;Satterwhite and Douglas 2013). The infection was not recognized as a sexually transmitted disease until 1976 because chlamydial disease was first identified in the eye and has a wide variety of symptoms or lack of symptoms that are identical to other diseases or syndromes (Schachter et al 1976;Balogh 2014).…”

“…Because of their tiny size that may pass through 0.45µm filters, the Chlamydiaceae were previously misidentified for viruses. The Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular parasites that depend on their eukaryotic hosts' metabolic resources to give energy for their own metabolism for development and copying by giving it high-energy substances like adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (Balogh 2014;Arif et al 2020). The outer cell wall of chlamydiae is similar to that of gramnegative bacteria.…”