Syphilis Research
Publications
Selected Syphilis Publications
Pospíšilová P, Fedrová P, Vrbová E, Hennelly CM, Aghakhanian F, Hawley KL, Bettin EB, Davenport TC, Bruisten SM, Zondag HCA, Grange PA, Dupin N, Arora N, Noda AA, Seña AC, Caimano MJ, Salazar JC, Juliano JJ, Moody MA, Radolf JD, Parr JB, Šmajs D.
Analysis of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum predicted outer membrane proteins (OMPeomes) in 21 clinical samples: variant sequences are predominantly surface-exposed. mSphere. 2025 Aug 29:e0021325. doi:10.1128/msphere.00213-25. PMID:40879370. PubMed
Bettin EB, Aghakhanian F, Hennelly CM, Chen W, Davenport TC, Hackl ST, Grassmann AA, Vargas-Cely F, Silva S, García-Luna JA, Ramirez LG, Jiang Y, Yang L, Zheng H, Yang B, Pospíšilová P, Šmajs D, Matoga MM, Hoffman IF, López-Medina E, Nieselt K, Moody MA, Seña AC, Salazar JC, Parr JB, Caimano MJ, Hawley KL, Radolf JD.
Sequence variability of BamA and FadL candidate vaccinogens suggests divergent evolutionary paths of Treponema pallidum outer membrane proteins. J Bacteriol. 2025 Aug 21;207(8):e0015925. doi:10.1128/jb.00159-25. PMID:40802283. PubMed
Delgado KN, Caimano MJ, Orbe IC, Vicente CF, La Vake CJ, Grassmann AA, Moody MA, Radolf JD, Hawley KL.
Immunodominant extracellular loops of Treponema pallidum FadL outer membrane proteins elicit antibodies with opsonic and growth-inhibitory activities. PLoS Pathog. 2024 Dec 23;20(12):e1012443. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1012443. PMID:39715273. PubMed
Delgado KN, Vicente CF, Hennelly CM, Aghakhanian F, Parr JB, Claffey KP, Radolf JD, Hawley KL, Caimano MJ.
Development and utilization of Treponema pallidum expressing green fluorescent protein to study spirochete–host interactions and antibody-mediated clearance: expanding the toolbox for syphilis research. mBio. 2025 Jan 8;16(1):e0325324. doi:10.1128/mbio.03253-24. PMID:39611839. PubMed
Seña AC, Matoga MM, Yang L, López-Medina E, Aghakhanian F, Chen JS, Bettin EB, Caimano MJ, Chen W, Garcia-Luna JA, Hennelly CM, Jere E, Jiang Y, Juliano JJ, Pospíšilová P, Ramirez L, Šmajs D, Tucker JD, Vargas Cely F, Zheng H, Hoffman IF, Yang B, Moody MA, Hawley KL, Salazar JC, Radolf JD, Parr JB.
Clinical and genomic diversity of Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum to inform vaccine research: an international, molecular epidemiology study. Lancet Microbe. 2024 Sep;5(9):100871. doi:10.1016/S2666-5247(24)00087-9. PMID:39181152. PubMed
Delgado KN, Caimano MJ, Orbe IC, Vicente CF, La Vake CJ, Grassmann AA, Moody MA, Radolf JD, Hawley KL.
Immunodominant extracellular loops of Treponema pallidum FadL outer membrane proteins elicit antibodies with opsonic and growth-inhibitory activities. bioRxiv. 2024 Jul 30:2024.07.30.605823. doi:10.1101/2024.07.30.605823. [Preprint]. PMID:39131275. PubMed
Vargas-Cely F, Silva S, García-Luna JA, Ramirez LG, … Salazar JC, Radolf JD, Parr JB.
Treponema pallidum genetic diversity and its implications for targeted vaccine development: A cross-sectional study of early syphilis cases in Southwestern Colombia. PLoS One. 2024 Jul 19;19(7):e0307600. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0307600. PMID:39028747. PubMed
Hennelly CM, Chen W, Aghakhanian F, … Parr JB.
Clinical presentation of early syphilis and genomic sequences of Treponema pallidum strains in patient specimens and isolates obtained by rabbit inoculation. J Infect Dis. 2024 Dec 16;230(6):e1322-e1333. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiae322. PMID:38884588. PubMed
Chen W, Yang L, Zheng H, … Parr JB.
Early syphilis in Guangzhou, China: presentation, molecular detection of Treponema pallidum, and genomic sequences in clinical specimens and isolates obtained by rabbit infectivity testing. medRxiv. 2023 Oct 19:2023.10.17.23297169. doi:10.1101/2023.10.17.23297169. [Preprint]. PMID:37905017. PubMed
Delgado KN, Rubin AF, Moody MA, … Hawley KL.
Use of Epivolve phage display to generate a monoclonal antibody with opsonic activity directed against a subdominant epitope on extracellular loop 4 of Treponema pallidum BamA (TP0326). Front Immunol. 2023 Aug 22;14:1222267. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1222267. PMID:37675118. PubMed
Hawley KL, Montezuma-Rusca JM, Delgado KN, … Luthra A.
Extracellular loops of the Treponema pallidum FadL orthologs TP0856 and TP0858 elicit IgG antibodies and IgG+-specific B cells in the rabbit model of experimental syphilis. mBio. 2022 Aug 30;13(4):e0163922. doi:10.1128/mbio.01639-22. PMID:35862766. PubMed
Hawley KL, Montezuma-Rusca JM, Delgado KN, … Luthra A.
Structural modeling of the Treponema pallidum outer membrane protein repertoire: a road map for deconvolution of syphilis pathogenesis and development of a syphilis vaccine. J Bacteriol. 2021 Jul 8;203(15):e0008221. doi:10.1128/JB.00082-21. PMID:33972353. PubMed
Luthra A, Montezuma-Rusca JM, La Vake CJ, LeDoyt M, Delgado KN, Davenport TC, Fiel-Gan M, Caimano MJ, Radolf JD, Hawley KL.
Evidence that immunization with TP0751, a bipartite Treponema pallidum lipoprotein with an intrinsically disordered region and lipocalin fold, fails to protect in the rabbit model of experimental syphilis. PLoS Pathog. 2020 Sep 16;16(9):e1008871. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1008871. PMID:32936831. PubMed