Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2006 Apr;19(2):283-97.
doi: 10.1128/CMR.19.2.283-297.2006.

Pathogenic potential of novel Chlamydiae and diagnostic approaches to infections due to these obligate intracellular bacteria

Daniele Corsaro  1 , Gilbert Greub
Affiliations
Review

Pathogenic potential of novel Chlamydiae and diagnostic approaches to infections due to these obligate intracellular bacteria

Daniele Corsaro et al. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2006 Apr.

Abstract

Novel chlamydiae are newly recognized members of the phylum Chlamydiales that are only distantly related to the classic Chlamydiaceae, i.e., Chlamydia and Chlamydophila species. They also exhibit an obligate biphasic intracellular life cycle within eukaryote host cells. Some of these new chlamydiae are currently considered potential emerging human and/or animal pathogens. Parachlamydia acanthamoebae and Simkania negevensis are both emerging respiratory human pathogens, Waddlia chondrophila could be a novel abortigenic bovine agent, and Piscichlamydia salmonis has recently been identified as an agent of the gill epitheliocystis in the Atlantic salmon. Fritschea spp. and Rhabdochlamydia spp. seem to be confined to arthropods, but some evidence for human exposure exists. In this review, we first summarize the data supporting a pathogenic potential of the novel chlamydiae for humans and other vertebrates and the interactions that most of these chlamydiae have with free-living amoebae. We then review the diagnostic approaches to infections potentially due to the novel chlamydiae, especially focusing on the currently available PCR-based protocols, mammalian cell culture, the amoebal coculture system, and serology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Parachlamydia acanthamoebae strain BN9 within Acanthamoeba polyphaga, as seen by electron microscopy. Magnification, ×3,500.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Amann, R. I., N. Springer, W. Schönhuber, W. Ludwig, E. N. Schmid, K. D. Müller, and R. Michel. 1997. Obligate intracellular bacterial parasites of acanthamoebae related to Chlamydia spp. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:115-121. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barnes, R. C. 1989. Laboratory diagnosis of human chlamydial infections. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 2:119-136. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beatty, W. L., R. P. Morrison, and G. I. Byrne. 1994. Persistent chlamydiae: from cell culture to a paradigm for chlamydial pathogenesis. Microbiol. Rev. 58:686-699. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benson, R. F., W. J. Drozanski, T. J. Rowbotham, I. Bialkowska, D. Losos, J. C. Butler, H. B. Lipman, J. F. Plouffe, and B. S. Fields. 1995. Serologic evidence of infection with 9 Legionella-like amoebal pathogens in pneumonia patients, abstr. C-200. Abstr. 95th Gen. Meet. Am. Soc. Microbiol. 1995. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C.
    1. Birtles, R. J., T. J. Rowbotham, C. Storey, T. J. Marrie, and D. Raoult. 1997. Chlamydia-like obligate parasite of free-living amoebae. Lancet 349:925-926. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources