Correlation of virulence genes to clinical manifestations and outcome in patients with Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis bacteremia

Abstract

In invasive SDSE infections, most isolates carry putative virulence genes, such as scpA, ska, saga, and slo. Clinical SDSE isolates in Taiwan remain susceptible to penicillin cefotaxime, and levofloxacin.

First molecular evidence of intrauterine and surgical-site infections caused by Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis

“…The three strains proved negative for a series of streptococcal superantigen virulence genes (speA, speC, speG, speH, speI, speJ, speK, speL, speM, ssa, smez); however, they were positive for nonsuperantigenic virulence genes (scpA, ska, slo, and sagA), as previously documented [5]. Furthermore, the strains were investigated by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to determine their genotypic characteristics.…”

“…Characterization of isolate virulence was conducted by multiplex PCR according to the primers and method previously described [5]. The three strains proved negative for a series of streptococcal superantigen virulence genes (speA, speC, speG, speH, speI, speJ, speK, speL, speM, ssa, smez); however, they were positive for nonsuperantigenic virulence genes (scpA, ska, slo, and sagA), as previously documented [5].…”

“…The three SDSE isolates (A~C) from different sources were examined by DNA macrorestriction analysis using SmaI coupled with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) as previously described [5]. The PFGE profiles showed that strains isolated from the three sources were identical (Figure 1).…”

“…equisimilis (SDSE) is a β-hemolytic streptococci that is increasingly prevalent in human infections, having the similar clinical spectrum of diseases caused by S. pyogenes (Group A Streptococcal infections, GAS) [1,2]. It presents as a pathogen in skin and soft-tissue infections, endocarditis, bacteremia, ocular infection, pneumonia, osteomyelitis, and meningitis [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. However, the microorganism is rarely associated with maternal colonization and infections during the delivery.…”

Group C Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis in south-east Brazil: genetic diversity, resistance profile and the first report of human and equine isolates belonging to the same multilocus sequence typing lineage

“…equisimilis (SDSE) has increasingly been recognized as the aetiological agent of several human invasive infections worldwide (Bruun et al, 2013;Sunaoshi et al, 2010;Takahashi et al, 2010Takahashi et al, , 2011Tsai et al, 2014). SDSE isolates are frequently classified as Lancefield group C or G. Comparative genomic analyses revealed that several commonly found group A streptococci virulence factors have also been detected in SDSE isolates, including C5a peptidase, M protein, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, hyaluronidase, streptokinase, streptolysin O and streptolysin S, amongst others (Reissmann et al, 2012;Sunaoshi et al, 2010;Suzuki et al, 2011;Watanabe et al, 2013).…”