CORE--CHLAMYDIA

沙眼衣原体是世界上最常见的性传播细菌病原体，每年造成数百万新感染。这些感染常常导致严重的后遗症，包括盆腔炎、不孕症、异位妊娠和慢性盆腔疼痛。虽然筛查方案可以减少衣原体感染及其并发症的流行，初级预防方案是必要的。局部使用杀菌剂被认为是预防衣原体感染和性传播疾病的有效方法。衣原体是专性胞内细菌，只能在真核细胞内生长。感染性初级体存在于性分泌物中，并适应在这种环境中生存。这些生物体在它们的生命周期中只有很短的一段时间是在细胞外的，但是这个细胞外的阶段对于它们在人与人之间的传播是必不可少的。正是在这短暂的时间内，衣原体可以被局部杀菌剂杀死。本提案的总体目标是评估各种局部杀菌剂对沙眼衣原体的活性。这包括：1；提供纯化的沙眼衣原体生物体并进行衣原体检测的微生物学和DNA扩增方法2。2 .用已开发或新的抗菌化合物和辅料进行体外最低杀灭浓度（MCC）测定，以确定其对沙眼衣原体的活性；评估先前鉴定的活性化合物对沙眼衣原体的作用模式。衣原体核心将为衣原体提供纯化生物体和高度专业化的微生物检测方法，材料和技术在美国只有少数实验室可用。此外，衣原体核心将利用我们在这个高度专业化的测试方面的独特专业知识，用各种杀菌剂对沙眼衣原体进行MCC检测。最后，我们将研究几种杀菌剂对衣原体的作用方式，提供有关这些杀菌剂如何发挥其抗衣原体作用的初步信息。

Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually-transmitted bacterial pathogen worldwide, causing millions of new infections each year. These infections all too frequently result in serious sequelae in women, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain. Although screening programs can reduce the prevalence of chlamydial infections and their complications, primary prevention programs are needed. The use of topical microbicides has been recognized as a productive approach for the prevention of chlamydial infections and STD's in general. Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacteria which can only grow within eukaryotic cells. Infectious elementary bodies are found in sexual secretions and are adapted for survival in this environment. The organisms are only extracellular for a brief period of their life cycle, but this extra cellular phase is essential for their transmission from person to person. It is during this brief time that Chlamydia are amenable to killing by topical microbicides. The overall goal of this proposal is to evaluate various topical microbicides for their activity against C. trachomatis. This includes: 1. Providing purified C. trachomatis organisms and performing microbiological and DNA amplification methods of chlamydial detection 2. Performing in vitro minimum cidal concentration (MCC) assays with developed or novel antimicrobial compounds and with excipients to determine their activity against C. trachomatis, and 3. assessing the mode of action of previously identified active compounds on C. trachomatis. The Chlamydia Core will provide purified organisms and highly specialized microbiological detection methods for Chlamydia, materials and techniques available in only a few laboratories in the United States. In addition, the Chlamydia Core will carry out MCC assays with various microbicides against C. trachomatis, utilizing our unique expertise with this highly specialized test. Finally, we will examine the mode of action of several microbicides on this organism, providing the first information about how these microbicides exert their anti-chlamydial effects.