Chlamydophila pneumoniae infection and cardiovascular disease

Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial vascular inflammatory process; however, the inciting cause for inflammation remains unclear. Two decades ago, Chlamydophila pneumoniae (formerly Chlamydia pneumoniae) infection was proposed as a putative etiologic agent. We performed a PubMed search using the keywords Chlamydia and atherosclerosis in a Boolean query to identify published studies on C. pneumoniae and its role in atherogenesis, and to understand research interest in this topic. We found 1,652 published articles on this topic between 1991 and 2011. We analyzed relevant published studies and found various serological, molecular, and animal modeling studies in the early period. Encouraged by positive results from these studies, more than a dozen antibiotic clinical-trials were subsequently conducted, which did not find clinical benefits of anti-Chlamydophila drug therapy. While many researchers believe that the organism is still important, negative clinical trials had a similar impact on overall research interest. With many novel mechanisms identified for atherogenesis, there is a need for newer paradigms in Chlamydophila-atherosclerosis research.