No abstract

Syphilis is a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum (TPA). Infection and dissemination of TPA leads to synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines triggered by TPA lipoproteins interacting with Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). TLR2 contains several non-synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms that may impact the activation of its signaling cascade and alter the responsiveness to, or course of, various infectious diseases; including those caused by pathogenic spirochetes. To investigate whether TLR2 polymorphism may influence susceptibility to syphilis, 221 healthy individuals with no history of syphilis (controls) and 137 patients diagnosed with syphilis (cases) were screened for the presence of the Arg753Gln polymorphism in the TLR2 gene (2258G>A; rs5743708). The Arg753Gln variant occurs at a significantly lower frequency in syphilis patients (4 out of 137; 3%) when compared with controls (24 out of 221; 10.9%). These data suggest that TLR2Arg753Gln may protect from the development of syphilis due to reduced signaling.