{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiae245","title":"<i>Treponema pallidum</i> Periplasmic and Membrane Proteins Are Recognized by Circulating and Skin CD4+ T Cells","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Histologic and serologic studies suggest the induction of local and systemic Treponema pallidum-specific CD4+ T-cell responses to T. pallidum infection. We hypothesized that T. pallidum-specific CD4+ T cells are detectable in blood and in the skin rash of secondary syphilis and persist in both compartments after treatment. METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected from 67 participants were screened by interferon-γ (IFN-γ) ELISPOT response to T. pallidum sonicate. T. pallidum-reactive T-cell lines from blood and skin were probed for responses to 89 recombinant T. pallidum antigens. Peptide epitopes and HLA class II restriction were defined for selected antigens. RESULTS: We detected CD4+ T-cell responses to T. pallidum sonicate ex vivo. Using T. pallidum-reactive T-cell lines we observed recognition of 14 discrete proteins, 13 of which localize to bacterial membranes or the periplasmic space. After therapy, T. pallidum-specific T cells persisted for at least 6 months in skin and 10 years in blood. CONCLUSIONS: T. pallidum infection elicits an antigen-specific CD4+ T-cell response in blood and skin. T. pallidum-specific CD4+ T cells persist as memory in both compartments long after curative therapy. The T. pallidum antigenic targets we identified may be high-priority vaccine candidates.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2024,"id":440652,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9664,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":403350,"name":"Charmie Godornes","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294663,"name":"Victoria Campbell","orcid":"0000-0001-6490-5974","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":430028,"name":"Kerry J. Laing","orcid":"0000-0001-9245-5325","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":401960,"name":"Lauren C. Tantalo","orcid":"0000-0001-5788-0465","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":464701,"name":"Alloysius Gomez","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1115483,"name":"Thepthara Pholsena","orcid":"0009-0000-7485-578X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":235221,"name":"Nicole A. P. Lieberman","orcid":"0000-0001-9334-8150","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1252607,"name":"Taylor Krause","orcid":"0000-0001-7516-6484","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":159445,"name":"Victoria Cegielski","orcid":"0000-0002-3800-1872","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":726435,"name":"Lauren A. Culver","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":878913,"name":"Nhi Nguyen","orcid":"0000-0001-8689-8525","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":931516,"name":"Denise Q. Tong","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486383,"name":"Kelly L. Hawley","orcid":"0000-0001-8587-1662","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":108342,"name":"Alexander L. Greninger","orcid":"0000-0002-7443-0527","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342142,"name":"Lorenzo Giacani","orcid":"0000-0003-3889-7274","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":463851,"name":"Caroline E. Cameron","orcid":"0000-0002-8786-4359","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":311287,"name":"Julia C. Dombrowski","orcid":"0000-0003-1907-9428","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294671,"name":"Anna Wald","orcid":"0000-0003-3486-6438","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294672,"name":"David M. Koelle","orcid":"0000-0003-1255-9023","position":19,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":401961,"name":"Tara B. Reid","orcid":"0000-0003-0786-9537","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":50,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:01:01.842286Z","pmid":"38932740","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}