Outer membrane protein in Treponema pallidum

Abstract:

Syphilis, an infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum, is mainly transmitted through mother-to-child infection or sexual contact. The outer membrane proteins of T. pallidum play important roles in the transmission and the adhesion to the hosts. Therefore, the identification of outer membrane proteins from T. pallidum, which can be used as the target of antibiotics, has become the research focus of vaccine development for syphilis. This review focuses on the structural and functional research of the outer membrane proteins of T. pallidum, and also summarizes the current research progresses on the development of drugs that target bacterial outer membrane proteins, in order to provide an overview and perspective aiming at the development of new drugs against T. pallidum.