Chlamydia trachomatis Infection and Anti-Hsp60 Immunity: The Two Sides of the Coin

PLoS Pathogens

Valentina Di Felice¹  Francesco Cappello²  Giovanni Zummo²  Alberto J. L. Macario²  Everly Conway de Macario³ 

[1]Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

[2]Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Sezione di Anatomia Umana “Emerico Luna”, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy

[3]Istituto EuroMEditerraneo di Scienza e Tecnologia (IEMEST), Palermo, Italy

关键词: Antibodies;    Cell membranes;    Pathogenesis;    Autoantibodies;    Chlamydia infection;    Enzyme-linked immunoassays;    Immunoprecipitation;    Chlamydia trachomatis;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1000552

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection is one of the most common causes of reproductive tract diseases and infertility. CT-Hsp60 is synthesized during infection and is released in the bloodstream. As a consequence, immune cells will produce anti-CT-Hsp60 antibodies. Hsp60, a ubiquitous and evolutionarily conserved chaperonin, is normally sequestered inside the cell, particularly into mitochondria. However, upon cell stress, as well as during carcinogenesis, the chaperonin becomes exposed on the cell surface (sf-Hsp60) and/or is secreted from cells into the extracellular space and circulation. Reports in the literature on circulating Hsp and anti-Hsp antibodies are in many cases short on details about Hsp60 concentrations, and about the specificity spectra of the antibodies, their titers, and their true, direct, pathogenetic effects. Thus, more studies are still needed to obtain a definitive picture on these matters. Nevertheless, the information already available indicates that the concurrence of persistent CT infection and appearance of sf-Hsp60 can promote an autoimmune aggression towards stressed cells and the development of diseases such as autoimmune arthritis, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis, vasculitis, diabetes, and thyroiditis, among others. At the same time, immunocomplexes composed of anti-CT-Hsp60 antibodies and circulating Hsp60 (both CT and human) may form deposits in several anatomical locations, e.g., at the glomerular basal membrane. The opposite side of the coin is that pre-tumor and tumor cells with sf-Hsp60 can be destroyed with participation of the anti-Hsp60 antibody, thus stopping cancer progression before it is even noticed by the patient or physician.

【 授权许可】

CC BY