HISTORY OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been known to mankind for centuries. Before the advent of modern medicine, people's lack of awareness and understanding of STDs contributed to the widespread transmission of the infections while few or no treatments were available to treat the conditions.

In medieval times, syphilis and gonorrhoea were two of the most prevalent STDs in Europe. One theory suggest that syphilis was spread by crew members who picked up the disease on the voyages led by Christopher Columbus. They are thought to have contracted syphilis while in the Americas and to have then spread it on their return when docking at ports in Europe. Sailors are also thought to be responsible for the spread of gonorrhoea from Tahiti to New Zealand during the Cook voyages.

Some STDs can have severe, life-changing consequences; syphilis, for example, can eventually cause progressive destruction of the brain and spinal cord, leading to mental dysfunction and hallucinations, speech problems and general paresis.

Treatment over the centuries

In the 18th and 19th centuries, mercury, arsenic and sulphur were commonly used to treat venereal disease, which often resulted in serious side effects and many people died of mercury poisoning. The first known effective treatment for syphilis called salvarsan or arsphenamine was introduced in 1910.

In the 20th Century, the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics led to an effective cure of bacterial STDs. This led to the public perceiving the illnesses as less of a threat and promiscuous conduct continued. In the late 20th century, the transmission of viral STDs such as HIV and herpes arose, infections that are not curable and, in some cases, may be fatal.

Hospital treatment of venereal diseases

Due to the stigma attached to STDs, people would often hesitate to seek help when the disease was in its initial stages, while continuing to transmit the infection to unsuspecting sexual partners. In 1746, at the London Lock Hospital, the first treatment for venereal disease was made available for those who sought help.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Contagious Diseases Act was passed to arrest and treat suspected prostitutes.

Tracing sexual partners with STDs

It was in the late 19th and early 20th century that the importance of tracing the sexual partners of a person infected with an STD was recognized. Soon, sexual health clinics were set up to identify and treat individuals with STDs and their partners, to prevent spread in the general population.

Another major problem that arose was an increase in adolescent sexual activity in the mid-20th Century. This led to widespread infection among younger age groups and changed the way healthcare policy makers tried to raise awareness through campaigns.

Source: https://www.news-medical.net/health/History-of-Sexually-Transmitted-Disease.aspx

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Gonorrhea researchers identify novel route to vaccine, new antibiotic

Researchers have identified a protein that powers the virulence of the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, opening the possibility of a new target for antibiotics and, even better, a vaccine.

The findings, published today in PLOS Pathogens, are especially important since the microbe, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is considered a "superbug" because of its resistance to all classes of antibiotics available for treating infections.

Gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease that results in 78 million new cases worldwide each year, is highly damaging if untreated or improperly treated.

It can lead to endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, epididymitis and infertility. Babies born to infected mothers are at increased risk of blindness.

"The infections very often are silent," said Oregon State University researcher Aleksandra Sikora. "Up to 50 percent of infected women don't have symptoms, but those asymptomatic cases can still lead to some very severe consequences for the patient's reproductive health, miscarriage or premature delivery."

The need for better antibiotic therapy, and a vaccine, is pressing. N. gonorrhoeae strains resistant to the last effective treatment options have emerged, and failures in treatment are occurring.

Sikora and her research team at the OSU/OHSU College of Pharmacy and Ann Jerse's lab at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, collaborated to discover a novel lipoprotein that N. gonorrhoeae uses to defeat the body's first line of innate immune defense.

The body relies on enzymes known as lysozymes that, as their name suggests, thwart bacteria by causing their cell wall to lyse, or break apart. Lysozymes are abundant both in epithelial cells, which make up the tissue on the outside of organs and the inside of body cavities, and in the phagocytic cells that protect the body by ingesting foreign particles and bacteria.

In turn, many gram-negative bacteria -- characterized by their cell envelope that includes a protective outer membrane -- have developed ways of defeating lysozymes. Prior to the work by Sikora's team, however, only one lysozyme-fighting protein had been discovered in the Neisseria genus.

Now that new targets have been identified, they can be explored as bullseye candidates for new antibiotics or a vaccine -- if the lysozyme inhibitor can itself be inhibited, then the bacteria's infection-causing ability is greatly reduced.

Sikora and her collaborators named the new protein SliC, short for surface-exposed lysozyme inhibitor of c-type lysozyme.

Studying SliC's function in culture as well as in a gonorrhea mouse model -- mice were infected with N. gonorrhoeae, then checked for SliC expression at one, three and five days -- researchers determined the protein was essential to bacterial colonization because of its anti-lysozyme role.

"This is the first time an animal model has been used to demonstrate a lysozyme inhibitor's role in gonorrhea infection," Sikora said. "Together, all of our experiments show how important the lysozyme inhibitor is. This is very exciting."

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705143834.htm

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Study characterizes mechanisms of pathogenesis, transmission of bacteria that cause gonorrhea

Researchers have come a step closer to understanding how gonorrhea infections are transmitted. When Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea, are exposed to seminal plasma, the liquid part of semen containing secretions from the male genital tract, they can more easily move and start to colonize. The research, led by investigators at Northwestern University in Chicago, appears in mBio-, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology."Our study illustrates an aspect of biology that was previously unknown," says lead study author Mark Anderson. "If seminal fluid facilitates motility, it could help transmit gonorrhea from person to person."

 Gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection, is exclusive to humans and thrives in warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, including the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes in women, and in the urethra in women and men. It is estimated there are more than 100 million new cases of gonorrhea annually worldwide.

"Research characterizing the mechanisms of pathogenesis and transmission of N. gonorrhoeae is important for developing new prevention strategies, since antibiotic resistance of the organism is becoming increasingly prevalent," says H. Steven Seifert, another author on the study.

In a series of laboratory experiments, the investigators studied the ability of N. gonorrhoeae to move through a synthetic barrier, finding that 24 times as many bacteria could pass through after being exposed to seminal plasma. Exposure to seminal plasma caused hair-like appendages on the bacteria surface, called pili, to move the cells by a process known as twitching motility. This stimulatory effect could be seen even at low concentrations of seminal plasma and beyond the initial influx of seminal fluid.

Additional tests found that exposure to seminal plasma also enhanced the formation of bacterial microcolonies on human epithelial cells (cells that line body cavities), which can also promote the establishment of infection.

Researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany also contributed to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and DFG, the German Research Foundation.

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Source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20140304/Study-characterizes-mechanisms-of-pathogenesis-transmission-of-bacteria-that-cause-gonorrhea.aspx