Scientists discover first gonorrhea strain resistant to all available antibiotics

An international research team has discovered a strain of gonorrhea resistant to all
currently available antibiotics. This new strain is likely to transform a common and
once easily treatable infection into a global threat to public health. The details of the
discovery made by Dr. Magnus Unemo, Dr. Makoto Ohnishi, and colleagues will be
presented at the 19th conference of the International Society for
Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) which runs July 10-13 in Quebec City, Canada.

The team of researchers successfully identified a heretofore unknown variant of
the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Analyzing this new strain,
dubbed H041, allowed researchers to identify the genetic mutations responsible
for the bacterium’s extreme resistance to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics
— the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhea.

“This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery,” noted Dr. Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria. “Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for
gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop
resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it.”

“While it is still too early to assess if this new strain has become widespread, the
history of newly emergent resistance in the bacterium suggests that it may spread rapidly
unless new drugs and effective treatment programs are developed,” Dr. Unemo continued.

Gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world.
In the U.S. alone, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the
number of cases is estimated at 700,000 annually.

Gonorrhea is asymptomatic in about 50% of infected women and
approximately 2-5% of men. When symptomatic, it is characterized by a burning sensation
when urinating and pus discharge from the genitals. If left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to
serious and irreversible health complications in both women and men.

In women, the infection can cause chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy. It can lead
to infertility, mostly in women but also in men, and it increases the risk of HIV transmission.
In 3-4% of cases, untreated infections spread to the skin, blood, joints, or even the heart and
can cause potentially mortal lesions. Babies born of infected mothers are at high risk of developing
serious blood and joint infections, and passage through the birth canal of an infected mother
can cause blindness in the infant.

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The research abstract below shows a probable link between chlamydia and ovarian cancer.

Research Summary
Ovarian cancer is a highly lethal disease and its underlying biology is poorly understood. Prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomies in BRCA + women have recently implicated the fimbria as a site of origin for high-grade serous carcinoma and its intraepithelial precursors. This suggests that at least some ovarian cancers, probably the most aggressive ones, may not originate in the ovary itself, but rather may arise in the uterine tubes.

Chronic inflammation is associated with carcinogenesis in several tissues, including liver, esophagogastric junction (cardia), and the uterine cervix. The mechanisms underlying the relationship between inflammation and cancer are complex and involve common pathways, in addition to DNA damage.

A critical source of uterine tube inflammation is infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. We hypothesize that C. trachomatis infection may be involved in chronic tubal inflammation and subsequent fimbrial carcinogenesis. Fimbrial intraepithelial precursors can evolve into high grade serous carcinomas that spread rapidly to the ovarian surface and peritoneum; such tumors may appear to be primary ovarian neoplasia, though in reality being a secondary malignancy. This hypothesis must be further investigated to understand the intracellular signaling pathways involved in Chlamydia infection and its healing, and their relationship to carcinogenesis in order to discover potential therapeutic molecular targets.

If our hypothesis were confirmed, salpingectomy instead of ovariectomy may also become the recommended surgery for high risk women.

for the abstract source —>
Is Chlamydia-infected tubal fimbria the origin of ovarian cancer?