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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/finally-theres-way-keep-syphilis-bacteria-growing-lab?tgt=nr
For more than a century, scientists have tried to grow Treponema pallidum, the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes syphilis. But the stubborn spirochete has refused to thrive any place outside of a human or rabbit for more than 18 days. That doesn’t give researchers much time to study it.
Until now. Norris and colleagues have cooked up a new recipe that keeps the bacteria alive for months, they report June 26 in mBio.
“We know very little about the organism,” Norris says. Being able to study it long-term in a dish could lead to better treatments for the millions infected worldwide and pave the way for the development of a vaccine to prevent the sexually transmitted disease (SN: 11/26/16, p.5).
Then, inspiration — from the bacteria that causes Lyme disease — struck. Although Borrelia burgdorferi and T. pallidum behave differently and cause different diseases, the two have similar spiral structures. Maybe they would grow in the same medium. That logic paid off. CMRL 1066, a brothy complex of sugars and vitamins favored by the Lyme spirochete, has helped keep T. pallidum alive for almost eight months, Norris says.
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See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirochaete. The spirochaetes are a unusual class of bacteria that cause a range of serious diseases. That the syphilis-causing & Lyme Disease-causing species grow on the same substrate should not have come as a big surprise.
For more than a century, scientists have tried to grow Treponema pallidum, the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes syphilis. But the stubborn spirochete has refused to thrive any place outside of a human or rabbit for more than 18 days. That doesn’t give researchers much time to study it.
Until now. Norris and colleagues have cooked up a new recipe that keeps the bacteria alive for months, they report June 26 in mBio.
“We know very little about the organism,” Norris says. Being able to study it long-term in a dish could lead to better treatments for the millions infected worldwide and pave the way for the development of a vaccine to prevent the sexually transmitted disease (SN: 11/26/16, p.5).
Then, inspiration — from the bacteria that causes Lyme disease — struck. Although Borrelia burgdorferi and T. pallidum behave differently and cause different diseases, the two have similar spiral structures. Maybe they would grow in the same medium. That logic paid off. CMRL 1066, a brothy complex of sugars and vitamins favored by the Lyme spirochete, has helped keep T. pallidum alive for almost eight months, Norris says.
=========================================
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirochaete. The spirochaetes are a unusual class of bacteria that cause a range of serious diseases. That the syphilis-causing & Lyme Disease-causing species grow on the same substrate should not have come as a big surprise.