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Gene study shows men may need higher antibiotic doses for gonorrhea
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Men infected with gonorrhea had a higher expression of antimicrobial resistant genes compared with infected women, suggesting that men may need higher doses of antibiotics to treat the infection, according to study results published in mSphere.
“We built on our earlier work on gene expression during infection in females to include both genders in the present analysis, so we see for the first time the expression profiles during active disease in males and their asymptomatic partners,” Caroline A. Genco, PhD, Arthur E. Splller Professor and chair of the department of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine, said in a press release. “We found that when the bacteria are infecting the male, it is a different gene expression profile compared to when they are infecting the female.”
“When you consider how fundamentally different the two host environments are, this makes sense,” Genco continued.
Genco and colleagues compared gonococcal gene expression and regulation in six men and seven women infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae who attended an STD clinic in Nanjing, China.
RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that 9.4% of gonococcal genes displayed an increased expression in men, which included genes involved in host immune cell interactions, whereas 4.3% of the genes showed an increased expression exclusively in women and included phage-associated genes.
The researchers reported that the men and women had comparable antibiotic-resistant genotypes and in vitro phenotypes. However, the men experienced an expression of Mtr efflux pump-related genes that was four times higher than the women.
“Our findings demonstrate distinct differences in expression of N gonorrhoeae antimicrobial resistant genes during mucosal infection in men and women,” Genco told Infectious Disease News. “We find much higher expression of these genes during infection in men. These results suggest that antimicrobial therapies may need to be targeted to these sex-specific differences — that is, higher doses may be needed to treat infected men.” – by Bruce Thiel
Disclosures: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at time of publication.
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