Penicillin kills Chlamydia following the fusion of bacteria with lysosomes and prevents genital inflammatory lesions in C. muridarum-infected mice.

ABSTRACT: The obligate intracellular bacterium Chlamydia exists as two distinct forms. Elementary bodies (EBs) are infectious and extra-cellular, whereas reticulate bodies (RBs) replicate within a specialized intracellular compartment termed an 'inclusion'. Alternative persistent intra-cellular forms can be induced in culture by diverse stimuli such as IFNγ or adenosine/EHNA. They do not grow or divide but revive upon withdrawal of the stimulus and are implicated in several widespread human diseases through ill-defined in vivo mechanisms. β-Lactam antibiotics have also been claimed to induce persistence in vitro. The present report shows that upon penicillin G (pG) treatment, inclusions grow as fast as those in infected control cells. After removal of pG, Chlamydia do not revert to RBs. These effect

SUBMITTER: Dumoux M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3871543 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature