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Chemical synthesis and biological activity of chlamydial lipopolysaccharide

Project management Kosma Paul
organizational unit Institute of Organic Chemistry
duration 01.12.1999 to- 30.11.2002
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Program none
Funder none
Competencies 

Abstract

Chlamydiae are intracellular parasitic bacteria which are responsible for manifold acute and chronic diseases in animals and humans. Infections by C. trachomatis affect 500 million people in the developing countries leading to trachoma and blindness, whereas in industrialized countries C. trachomatis is most frequently diagnosed in sexually transmitted diseases. One of the most important discoveries of infectious disease biology in the last decade, however, has been the finding of another chlamydial species (C. pneumoniae) to be associated with cardiovascular diseases, most importantly with atherosclerosis. The proposed project is focused on the chemical synthesis of one of the major antigenic determinants occurring in the outer membrane of the chlamydial cell wall. Since the highly infectious bacteria may only be grown in tissue culture, insufficient amounts of chlamydial components are available for a detailed study of their immunobiological functions. Therefore, chlamydial lipid A will be prepared by chemical synthesis and linked to the genus-specific carbohydrate epitope, which will provide chlamydial lipopolysaccharide in defined and purified form for immunobiological studies. The expected outcome should considerably improve the knowledge on the biological activities of chlamydial endotoxin, its antigenic properties and its biosynthesis. The results may be exploited for better diagnosis of acute and chronic chlamydial infections, lead to potential vaccines or novel antimicrobials by designing proper inhibitors of glycosyl transferases in particular and prove structure - function relationships of endotoxins in general.

keywords

Publications

Project staff

Portrait Paul Kosma

Paul Kosma

Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dipl.-Ing.Dr.techn. Paul Kosma
paul.kosma@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-77355

Project Leader

01.12.1999 - 30.11.2002

Portrait Andreas Hofinger-Horvath

Andreas Hofinger-Horvath

Ass.Prof.i.R. Dipl.-Ing.Dr.nat.techn. Andreas Hofinger-Horvath
andreas.hofinger@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-77381

Project Staff

01.12.1999 - 30.11.2002

Portrait Michael Puchberger

Michael Puchberger

Univ.Ass. Mag.rer.nat. Dr.rer.nat. Michael Puchberger

Project Staff

01.12.1999 - 30.11.2002

Portrait Alla Zamyatina

Alla Zamyatina

Assoc. Prof. Dipl.-Ing.Dr. Alla Zamyatina
alla.zamyatina@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-77384

Project Staff

01.12.1999 - 30.11.2002

BOKU partners

Institute of Organic Chemistry

role coordinator

External partners

Forschungszentrum Borstel

none

partner

Institute of Chemistry

none

partner