{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pntd.0010237","title":"Concordance of ompA types in children re-infected with ocular Chlamydia trachomatis following mass azithromycin treatment for trachoma","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The chlamydial major outer membrane protein, encoded by the ompA gene, is a primary target for chlamydial vaccine research. However, human studies of ompA-specific immunity are limited, and prior studies have been limited in differentiating re-infection from persistent infection. The purpose of this study was to assess whether children living in trachoma-endemic communities with re-infections of ocular chlamydia were more likely to be infected with a different or similar genovar. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: The study included 21 communities from a trachoma-hyperendemic area of Ethiopia that had been treated with a mass azithromycin distribution for trachoma. Conjunctival swabbing was offered to all children younger than 5 years of age at baseline (i.e., pre-treatment), and then at follow-up visits 2 and 6 months later. Swabs were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect C. trachomatis. A random sample of 359 PCR-positive swabs, stratified by study visit and study community, was chosen for ompA sequencing. In addition, ompA sequencing was performed on all swabs of 24 children who experienced chlamydial re-infection (i.e., positive chlamydial test before treatment, negative test 2 months following mass distribution of azithromycin, and again a positive test 6 months post-treatment). ompA sequencing was successful for 351 of 359 swabs of the random sample and 44 of 48 swabs of the re-infection sample. In the random sample, ompA types clustered within households more than would be expected by chance. Among the 21 re-infected children with complete ompA data, 14 had the same ompA type before and after treatment. CONCLUSION: The high frequency of ompA concordance suggests incomplete genovar-specific protective immunity and the need for multiple antigens as vaccine targets.","journal":"PLoS neglected tropical diseases","year":2022,"id":288471,"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":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9596,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":969687,"name":"Stephanie Chin","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":104097,"name":"Wondu Alemayehu","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":969688,"name":"Muluken Melese","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":969689,"name":"Takele Lakew","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":969272,"name":"Zhaoxia Zhou","orcid":"0000-0001-7789-1145","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":378184,"name":"Thuy Doan","orcid":"0000-0003-2733-8370","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":739066,"name":"Vicky Cevallos","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274646,"name":"Thomas M. Lietman","orcid":"0000-0001-8216-0240","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228841,"name":"Jeremy D. Keenan","orcid":"0000-0002-7118-1457","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":697,"name":"Arman Mosenia","orcid":"0000-0002-2645-2246","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":12,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:30:14.968626Z","pmid":"35344559","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":[]}