Trichomonas Typing System

阴道毛滴虫（Tv）占全世界所有可治愈的性传播感染的近一半，其中包括美国每年500万例新感染。虽然男性和女性的感染通常无症状，但尿道炎、阴道炎和宫颈炎并不罕见。在女性中，Tv与不良的出生结果有关，感染是艾滋病毒传播的重要辅助因素。Tv毒株变异的程度以及某些毒株是否更容易产生有症状或无症状感染尚不清楚。对甲硝唑耐药的报告已经出现并正在增加，但很少有研究记录治疗失败的真实程度，因为再感染和持续感染之间的区别等待一个实用的分型系统。发展一种可靠的分子Tv分型系统将有助于了解Tv感染的流行病学，从而更好地检测和治疗滴虫病，这反过来又有助于改善妇女的健康状况。 生殖健康和减少艾滋病毒的传播。具体目标是1）基于寄生虫基因组中含有串联DNA重复序列的位点处的序列和长度多态性来建立Tv基因型。将通过PCR扩增含有可变数目的串联重复序列的基因座。将利用等位基因长度多态性来产生多位点分型系统。2)目的明确Tv病毒（TVV）在近期临床分离株中的遗传异质性，以确定TVV+毒株的亚群。将生成病毒聚合酶cDNA序列并进行比较，以揭示TVV的相关性和聚类模式。3)检测现有临床标本的菌株类型，包括来自性伴侣的Tv。使用在目标1和2中开发的分型系统，我们将比较T。来自NC的两个STD诊所和AL的一个STD诊所的受感染妇女及其男性伴侣的迷走神经张力类型，以确定性伴侣之间和诊所人群之间的张力差异程度。我们还将测试Tv菌株的差异 类型有助于临床表现和传播，通过比较Tv类型在有或无症状的妇女中的分布，以及其伴侣是否感染了Tv。这些研究的结果可能导致开发方法来识别特别重要的Tv菌株，改善治疗，从而减少这种非常流行的STI的不良健康后果。

Trichomonas vaginalis (Tv) accounts for nearly half of all curable sexually transmitted infections worldwide, including 5 million new infections annually in the US. Though infection is often asymptomatic in men and women, urethritis, vaginitis and cervicitis are not uncommon. In women, Tv has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, and infection is an important co-factor in HIV transmission. The extent of Tv strain variation and whether some strains are more likely to produce symptomatic or asymptomatic infection are not known. Reports of resistance to metronidazole have appeared and are increasing, but there have been few studies documenting the true extent of treatment failures, since distinction between reinfection and persistent infection await a practical typing system. Development of a reliable, molecular Tv typing system would improve understanding the epidemiology of Tv infection, resulting in better detection and treatment of trichomoniasis, which in turn are needed improve women's reproductive health and reduce HIV transmission where Tv is common. The specific aims are 1) To establish Tv genotypes based on sequence and length polymorphisms at sites in the parasite genome containing tandem DNA repeats. Loci containing variable numbers of tandem repeats will be amplified by PCR. Allele length polymorphisms will be exploited to generate a multi-locus typing system. 2) To define the genetic heterogeneity of Tv viruses (TVV) in recent clinical isolates to identify subgroups of TVV+ strains. Viral polymerase cDNA sequences will be generated and compared to reveal the relatedness and clustering patterns of TVVs. 3) To examine strain types of existing clinical specimens including Tv from sexual partners. Using the typing system developed in Aims 1 and 2, we will compare T. vaginalis strain types from infected women and their male partners attending two STD clinics in NC and one in AL to define the extent of strain differences within and between sexual partnerships and within and between clinic populations. We will also test the hypotheses that differences in Tv strain types contribute to clinical presentation and transmission by comparing the distribution of Tv types among women with or without symptoms and whose partners were or were not infected with Tv. The results of these studies may lead to the development of methods to identify particularly important Tv strains, improving treatment, and thereby reducing the adverse health consequences of this enormously prevalent STI.