Antibody-mediated enhancement of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.

ABSTRACT: Community-acquired infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) expressing the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) are rampant, but the contribution of PVL to bacterial virulence remains controversial. While PVL is usually viewed as a cytotoxin, at sublytic amounts it activates protective innate immune responses. A leukotoxic effect might predominate in high inoculum studies, whereas protective proinflammatory properties might predominate in settings with lower bacterial inocula that more closely mimic what initially occurs in humans. However, these protective effects might possibly be neutralized by antibodies to PVL, which are found in normal human sera and at increased levels following PVL(+) S. aureus infections. In a low-inoculum murine skin abscess model incl

SUBMITTER: Yoong P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2836673 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature