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Molecular typing of Treponema pallidum strains from patients with neurosyphilis in Pretoria, South Africa.

Sex Transm Inf 2007; 83:189-192.

Molepo J, Pillay A, Weber B, Morse SA, Hoosen AA.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the molecular typing system for Treponema pallidum using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens obtained from patients with neurosyphilis in Pretoria, South Africa. METHODS: CSF specimens were collected from 32 men and 18 women with suspected late neurosyphilis. Typing of T pallidum involved PCR amplification and restriction analysis of the tprE, G and J genes and determination of the number of 60 base pair tandem repeats within the arp gene by PCR amplification. RESULTS: Of 13 typeable specimens, 4 strain types were identified: 2i, 3e, 14a and 17e. Subtype 14a was identified in 7 specimens (53.8%), subtype 3e in 4 specimens (30.7%) and subtypes 17e and 2i in 1 specimen (7.6%) each. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the typing system can be applied to specimens which may contain low numbers of spirochaetes such as CSF.