title: Novel Detection Strategy To Rapidly Evaluate the Efficacy of Antichlamydial Agents.
abstract: Chlamydia trachomatis infections present a major heath burden worldwide. The conventional method used to detect C. trachomatis is laborious. In the present study, a novel strategy was utilized to evaluate the impact of antimicrobial agents on the growth of C. trachomatis and its expression of ompA promoter-driven green fluorescence protein (GFP). We demonstrate that this GFP reporter system gives a robust fluorescent display of C. trachomatis growth in human cervical epithelial cells and, further, that GFP production directly correlates to changes in ompA expression following sufficient exposure to antimicrobials. Validation with azithromycin, the first-line macrolide drug used for the treatment of C. trachomatis infection, highlights the advantages of this method over the traditional method because of its simplicity and versatility. The results indicate both that ompA is highly responsive to antimicrobials targeting the transcription and translation of C. trachomatis and that there is a correlation between changing GFP levels and C. trachomatis growth. This proof-of-concept study also reveals that the ompA-GFP system can be easily adapted to rapidly assess antimicrobial effectiveness in a high-throughput format.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yuqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Leiqiong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Hiba
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Elaasar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Lamiya
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tauhid
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China h_ziyu@163.com lshen@lsuhsc.edu.
authors.forename: Ziyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA h_ziyu@163.com lshen@lsuhsc.edu.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017963:Azithromycin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000187:drug effects*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D017963:Azithromycin
keywords: Chlamydia trachomatis; antimicrobial agents; green fluorescent protein; high throughput; obligate intracellular bacteria; reporter assay