{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T13:16:08Z","timestamp":1785417368398,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"American Society for Microbiology","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1775520000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1775520000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.asm.org\/non-commercial-tdm-license"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2R01AI139265"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2R01AI139265"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.asm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Microbiol Spectr"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title\/>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Treponema pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) can be detected by molecular techniques. However, research is needed to determine the best specimen and DNA gene target for this molecular detection. Previous research has employed the\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene as a target in nucleic acid tests for\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      detection, whereas the\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene has mainly been used for molecular typing of\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      . We evaluated the effectiveness of using\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      alone and both targets,\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      , for\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      detection in anal, oral, and lesion swab samples from syphilis cases. Between 2019 and 2022, participants diagnosed with syphilis in Peru were enrolled. A total of 258 oral, 116 anal, and 87 lesion swab samples were collected and processed to amplify both target genes using qualitative PCR.\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA was detected in 8.5% oral, 38.8% anal, and 49.4% lesion samples. We obtained a significantly higher proportion of positives when both genes were used compared with using\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      alone. Detection rates increased from 3.9% using\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      only to 8.5% when combining both\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      in oral samples (\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &lt; 0.05), and detection in lesion samples increased from 24.1 to 49.4% using both targets (\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &lt; 0.001). We also observed significant differences when comparing the proportion of participants with\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA detected between those with one and two or three samples collected\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">(P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &lt; 0.001). Amplifying\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      genes improves the detection of\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA, and collecting samples from multiple anatomical sites (anal and oral samples) could facilitate syphilis diagnosis when lesions are not observed.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>IMPORTANCE<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Treponema pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA amplification may be a useful technique to aid in the diagnosis of syphilis and increase case infection. While specific genes have been used in PCR techniques for this purpose, the\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene has been used as a main target due to its specificity; the best single or combination of gene targets is unknown. Given the\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene is employed for genotyping, only a few studies have evaluated its utility for\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      detection. Here, we have evaluated two gene targets (\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0574<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) for\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA detection in extragenital and lesion samples from persons with syphilis. We found that the implementation of\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">tp0548<\/jats:italic>\n                      as a second target improves\n                      <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">T. pallidum<\/jats:italic>\n                      DNA detection and that tp0548 alone performs better than tp0574 in both oral and lesion samples. However, further research is necessary to explore the implementation of tp0548 target to improve the detection in diverse types of samples.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1128\/spectrum.01809-25","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,26]],"date-time":"2026-02-26T14:00:51Z","timestamp":1772114451000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1128\/asmj-crossmark-policy-page","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Detection of\n                    <i>Treponema pallidum<\/i>\n                    DNA by targeting the\n                    <i>tp0574<\/i>\n                    and\n                    <i>tp0548<\/i>\n                    genes in genital lesion, oral swab, and anal swab samples from a cohort of Peruvian patients with syphilis"],"prefix":"10.1128","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6466-1811","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Francesca","family":"V\u00e1squez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03yczjf25","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia","place":["Lima, Per\u00fa"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Eguiluz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03yczjf25","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia","place":["Lima, Per\u00fa"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Silver K.","family":"Vargas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03yczjf25","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia","place":["Lima, Per\u00fa"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2647-2933","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jazmin","family":"Qquellon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03yczjf25","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Centro de Investigaci\u00f3n Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia","place":["Lima, Per\u00fa"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"E. 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