Project information
Emerging antibiotic resistance in Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum: mapping of antibiotic resistance among contemporary syphilis strains

Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA) is an obligatory human pathogen causing syphilis. Within this proposal, we are planning to study existing and identify potentially novel TPA gene mutations causing antibiotic resistance assuming that contemporary TPA strains already accumulated mutations leading to antibiotic resistance when compared to historical TPA strains. The main goal of this proposal is therefore to study emerged antibiotic resistance among contemporary TPA strains and also to experimentally determine a potential of TPA bacteria for emergence of antibiotic resistance-encoding mutations in the future, i.e., to study whether it is possible to experimentally select TPA strains that are partially or completely resistant to antibiotics and if possible, reveal the molecular basis of such resistance. For the identified TPA mutations, causing antibiotic resistance, we will develop a straightforward method for their detection and test both repository and prospective clinical isolates for their presence. The importance of this project is underscored by increasing number of syphilis cases in Europe and in the Czech Republic in the recent years, by increasing numbers of reports of penicillin G treatment failures and also by emerging antibiotic resistance among contemporary TPA strains.