P1.29 Attachment of the syphilis spirochete,<i>treponema pallidum</i>, to the vascular endothelium
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: Treponema pallidum is the causative agent of venereal syphilis, a human-specific sexually transmitted infection characterised by multi-stage disease and diverse clinical manifestations. T. pallidum undergoes rapid hematogenous dissemination, accessing distant organ sites and penetrating tissue, placental, and blood-brain barriers. Tp0751 is an adhesin that interacts with the host vasculature and mediates bacterial adherence to endothelial cells under shear flow conditions. This study explores Tp0751-mediated adhesion to the vascular endothelium. Methods Tp0751, expressed in a non-infectious model spirochete [Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb-Tp0751)], was assessed for a gain-of-function adhesion phenotype using attachment assays. Interaction specificity was probed with competitive inhibition studies using synthetic peptides of Tp0751 host-binding regions. Affinity chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry was used to identify endothelial receptors for Tp0751. Membrane receptors isolated from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were incubated with Tp0751-affinity columns and interacting proteins were identified with mass spectrometry. Results Here we demonstrate that Bb-Tp0751 adheres to HUVECs under stationary conditions. The laminin receptor (LamR) was identified as an endothelial receptor for Tp0751. LamR is a brain endothelial receptor for other neurotropic invasive pathogens, including Neisseria meningitidis. Current investigations will validate the Tp0751-LamR interaction and characterise the functional outcomes of Tp0751 adhesion to endothelial cells. Conclusion These investigations reveal the mechanics of T. pallium attachment to endothelial cells, the fundamental step in the process of T. pallidum vascular dissemination. A complete understanding of this process will provide opportunities to prevent T. pallidum attachment to the host vasculature to facilitate syphilis vaccine development.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".