Recombinant Chlamydia trachomatis Antigen

Chlamydia trachomatis is a Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterium that exclusively infects humans. It is the leading bacterial cause of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) worldwide, resulting in urethritis, cervicitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and is also the etiological agent of trachoma, the world's leading infectious cause of preventable blindness. The bacterium exhibits a unique biphasic developmental cycle, alternating between the infectious, metabolically inactive elemental body (EB) and the non-infectious, metabolically active replicating reticulate body (RB) within host cell vacuoles (inclusions). Key targets for nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), serological assays, and vaccine research include the Major Outer Membrane Protein (MOMP), the Chlamydia heat shock protein 60 (cHsp60), and specific outer membrane complex proteins like OmcB.