An integrated approach to the understanding of Chlamydia infections: Introduction to the 2009 update.

An integrated, multidisciplinary effort is needed to achieve a greater understanding of the immunopathogenesis of urogenital and ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infections to combat this infection successfully, to prevent long-term complications and to develop a vaccine. The contribution of molecular epidemiology and host-pathogen genomics to the understanding of diseases caused by C. trachomatis was explored in depth by the ICTI Consortium, which was first introduced in the Netherlands in December 2004 at the First Annual Amsterdam Chlamydia Meeting (AACM) and was the subject of a special Drugs of Today supplement published in 2006, entitled "An integrated approach to the understanding of Chlamydia infections". The ICTI Consortium formed the basis for a larger, European Union-funded international effort involving 20 centers, the EpiGenChlamydia Consortium. Major themes, including epidemiology, genetics and immunogenetics, biology and immunology, involving the chlamydiae species infecting humans, such as C. trachomatis, C. psittaci and C. pneumoniae, predominantly presented at the 4th and 5th AACM, are summarized in this second Drugs of Today supplement, as well as timely mini-reviews of the advances made in the field.