Proteolytic activity among various oral Treponema species and cloning of a prtP-like gene of Treponema socranskii subsp. socranskii1

Abstract

The proteolytic activity of 11 treponemal strains representing different phylogenetic groups was investigated by SDS–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with copolymerised casein, gelatin and fibrinogen as substrates. The activity was specified to be trypsin‐ and chymotrypsin‐like by the cleavage of synthetic substrates BAPNA and SAAPFNA, respectively. Nine strains degrade casein and the synthetic substrate BAPNA. Chymotrypsin‐like activity specifically inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride was found in four treponemes. Southern blot analysis using a Treponema socranskii subsp. socranskii‐specific prtP probe confirmed the presence of prtP homologous genes in these four strains. The internal fragments of the chymotrypsin‐like protease genes were cloned and sequenced after PCR amplification. Here we report the cloning of the complete prtP‐like gene of T. socranskii subsp. socranskii, an organism shown to possess epidemiologic relevance in periodontitis.

Phenol/water extract of Treponema socranskii subsp. socranskii as an antagonist of Toll-like receptor 4 signalling

“…Riviere et al (2002) detected several species of oral spirochaetes including T. socranskii in the brain cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease by PCR and immunohistochemical analyses. A protease showing chymotrypsin-like activity was identified in this bacterium (Correia et al, 2003;Heuner et al, 2001). More recently we observed that T. socranskii induced osteoclastogenesis by upregulating prostaglandin E 2 , which stimulated the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB ligand .…”