Streptococcus pneumoniae: Invasion and Inflammation

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumoccus) is the leading cause of otitis media, community-acquired pneumonia, and bacterial meningitis. The success of the pneumococcus stems from its ability to persist in the population as a commensal and avoid killing by immune system. This chapter first reviews the molecular mechanisms that allow the pneumococcus to colonize and spread from one anatomical site to the next. Then, it discusses the mechanisms of inflammation and cytotoxicity during emerging and classical pneumococcal infections.

Heat-Killed Fusobacterium nucleatum Triggers Varying Heme-Related Inflammatory and Stress Responses Depending on Primary Human Respiratory Epithelial Cell Type

“…Sp is a bacterium that has traditionally infected the respiratory system [ 21 ], whereas Fn is a bacterium that has mainly occupied the human oral cavity [ 1 , 2 ]. Incubating human respiratory epithelial cells with heat-killed Fn and, subsequently, comparing the results to human respiratory epithelial cells incubated with heat-killed Sp would shed light on the virulence potential of Fn in regard to human respiratory epithelial cells.…”

Proteomic Investigation Uncovers Potential Targets and Target Sites of Pneumococcal Serine-Threonine Kinase StkP and Phosphatase PhpP

“…Additionally, S. pneumoniae is increasingly resistant to the most common clinically used drugs such as beta-lactam antibiotics and macrolides (Schulz and Hammerschmidt, 2013;Gladstone et al, 2019;Peyrani et al, 2019). Moreover, it can express a high number of specific virulence factors that raise pathogenicity by complex mechanisms (Bogaert et al, 2004;Kadioglu et al, 2008;Gamez and Hammerschmidt, 2012;Voss et al, 2012;Doran et al, 2016;Loughran et al, 2019;Subramanian et al, 2019). To ensure successful treatments in the future, it is vital to develop new antimicrobial drugs against pneumococci and their resistant strains, which are not based on the composition of the polysaccharide capsule but on other virulence factors like specific proteins, e.g., choline-binding proteins or lipoproteins (Pérez-Dorado et al, 2012;Kohler et al, 2016;Voß et al, 2018).…”

Serum S100A8 as an early diagnostic biomarker in patients with community-acquired pneumonia

“…More and more studies have found that in ammation reaction participates in the pathogenesis of CAP patients. C-reactive protein (CRP) and many pro-in ammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNFα and IL-6) were increased in CAP patients [27][28][29]. In ammatory cytokines were positively associated with the severity among CAP patients [30].…”