Lymphogranuloma Venereum C. trachomatis Strains | CDC EID

EID Journal Home > Volume 16, Number 11–November 2010
Volume 16, Number 11–November 2010
Dispatch
Typing of Lymphogranuloma Venereum Chlamydia trachomatis Strains

Linus Christerson, Henry J.C. de Vries, Bertille de Barbeyrac, Charlotte A. Gaydos, Birgit Henrich, Steen Hoffmann, Julius Schachter, Johannes Thorvaldsen, Martí Vall-Mayans, Markus Klint, Björn Herrmann, Comments to Author and Servaas A. Morré
Author affiliations: Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (L. Christerson, M. Klint, B. Herrmann); Municipal Health Service Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (H.J.C. de Vries); University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (H.J.C. de Vries); National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands (H.J.C. de Vries); Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France (B. de Barbeyrac); Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA (C.A. Gaydos); Heinrich-Heine-University, Duesseldorf, Germany (B. Henrich); Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark (S. Hoffman); University of California, San Francisco, California, USA (J. Schachter); Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (J. Thorvaldsen); Catalan Health Institute, Barcelona, Spain (M. Vall-Mayans); and VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (S.A. Morré)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
We analyzed by multilocus sequence typing 77 lymphogranuloma venereum Chlamydia trachomatis strains from men who have sex with men in Europe and the United States. Specimens from an outbreak in 2003 in Europe were monoclonal. In contrast, several strains were in the United States in the 1980s, including a variant from Europe.

Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis serovars L1, L2, and L3. This disease is endemic to parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia but only occurred sporadically in Europe before 2003, at which time an outbreak of LGV occurred in the Netherlands among men who have sex with men (MSM) (1). Since then, a large number of LGV cases have been reported among MSM in Europe, North America, and Australia. Although the inguinal form (formation of buboes) is more common in heterosexual LGV patients, in the current epidemic among MSM, anal infections have been diagnosed in most LGV cases.

Sequencing the highly variable outer membrane protein A (ompA) gene identified a new genetic variant designated L2b, which subsequently has been identified in nearly all recent LGV cases in MSM that have been investigated (2). This variant was also found in isolates obtained from MSM in San Francisco, California, USA, in the early 1980s (3). However, differences in other regions of the C. trachomatis genome are possible and these regions should be investigated.

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a genotyping method based on amplification and sequencing of several genetic regions. Recently, 3 MLST systems for genotyping of Chlamydiacae bacteria have been reported. Two are based on housekeeping genes, and their resolution is comparable to that of ompA (4,5), which gives these 2 systems limited usefulness in C. trachomatis strain discrimination and outbreak investigations. A third MLST system was reported by Klint et al. (6) for short-term epidemiologic analysis of C. trachomatis strains. This system showed a 3-fold higher resolution than conventional ompA genotyping when applied to serovars A–K (6,7), which cause ocular trachoma and genital chlamydia infections. Recent evaluation of typing schemes confirms the considerable discriminatory potential of our system and recommends it for typing of closely related clinical strains (8). This system includes 5 highly variable gene regions; 2 of them (penicillin-binding protein and histone H1–like protein [hctB]), are subjected to selection pressure, which facilitates analysis of epidemiologic changes over limited periods.

Our objective was to deduce the nature and origin of the LGV outbreak among MSM in Europe. We used the MLST system of Klint et al. (6) to investigate genetic variation in LGV strains. Strains were obtained from MSM from contemporary Europe and the United States and from MSM in San Francisco during the 1980s.

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Lymphogranuloma Venereum C. trachomatis Strains | CDC EID

Suggested Citation for this Article

Christerson L, de Vries HJC, de Barbeyrac B, Gaydos CA, Henrich B, Hoffmann S, et al. Typing of lymphogranuloma venereum Chlamydia trachomatis strains. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2010 Nov [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/11/1777.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1611.100379