Hijacking Kinases in Chlamydiae

Abstract

In 2020 Dr. Erika Lutter and Dr. Prakash Sah, made a discovery concerning the ever present pathogen Chlamydia, while most of the general audience will think of chlamydia as a pesky sexually transmitted infection the athogen itself actually does some very interesting things, which make it an incredicly interesting pathogen. It exists in two forms the infectious body and the intercellular body. The intracellular bodies duplicate within the epithelium of the urogenital tract until the cells begin to burst releasing the infection. It remains more then just a simple infection as well though it can be treated and cured, it contains, “Ct has a number of serovars which cause different types of pathology; A–C are responsible for ocular infections (trachoma) and are a major cause of blindness particularly in the developing world; D–K cause the common sexually transmitted infection and L1 and L2 cause the severe pathology of lymphogranuloma venereum.” (cite). The Focus however of the Study done by Lutter and Sah focused on the kinase hijacking of the host. As stated in the abstract of the paper at hand, “Being an obligate intracellular pathogen, Chlamydia relies on the host cell for its survival and development, subverting various host cell processes throughout the infection cycle. A key subset of host proteins utilized by Chlamydia include an assortment of host kinase signaling networks which are vital for many chlamydial processes including entry, nutrient acquisition, and suppression of host cell apoptosis.” (cite)