Sensing of interleukin-1 cytokines during Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization contributes to macrophage recruitment and bacterial clearance.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus), a leading cause of bacterial disease, is most commonly carried in the human nasopharynx. Colonization induces inflammation that promotes the organism's growth and transmission. This inflammatory response is dependent on intracellular sensing of bacterial components that access the cytosolic compartment via the pneumococcal pore-forming toxin pneumolysin. In vitro, cytosolic access results in cell death that includes release of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β). IL-1 family cytokines, including IL-1β, are secreted upon activation of inflammasomes, although the role of this activation in the host immune response to pneumococcal carriage is unknown. Using a murine model of pneumococcal nasopharyngeal colonization, we show that mic

SUBMITTER: Lemon JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4496617 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature