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Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule determines disease severity in experimental pneumococcal meningitis.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniaebacteria can be characterized into over 90 serotypes according to the composition of their polysaccharide capsules. Some serotypes are common in nasopharyngeal carriage whereas others are associated with invasive disease, but when carriage serotypes do invade disease is often particularly severe. It is unknown whether disease severity is due directly to the capsule type or to other virulence factors. Here, we used a clinical pneumococcal isolate and its capsule-switch mutants to determine the effect of capsule, in isolation from the genetic background, on severity of meningitis in an infant rat model. We found that possession of a capsule was essential for causing meningitis. Serotype 6B caused significantly more mortality than 7F and this correlated with increased capsule thickness in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a stronger inflammatory cytokine response in the CSF and ultimately more cortical brain damage. We conclude that capsule type has a direct effect on meningitis severity. This is an important consideration in the current era of vaccination targeting a subset of capsule types that causes serotype replacement.

SUBMITTER: Hathaway LJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4821241 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule determines disease severity in experimental pneumococcal meningitis.

Hathaway Lucy J LJ Grandgirard Denis D Valente Luca G LG Täuber Martin G MG Leib Stephen L SL

Open biology 20160301 3

Streptococcus pneumoniaebacteria can be characterized into over 90 serotypes according to the composition of their polysaccharide capsules. Some serotypes are common in nasopharyngeal carriage whereas others are associated with invasive disease, but when carriage serotypes do invade disease is often particularly severe. It is unknown whether disease severity is due directly to the capsule type or to other virulence factors. Here, we used a clinical pneumococcal isolate and its capsule-switch mut ...[more]

PMID: 27009189

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Project description:We applied genomic array footprinting (GAF) in the search for genes of S. pneumoniae essential during the establishment and progression of experimental meningitis. Four libraries with a total of 6,000 independent TIGR4 marinerT7 transposon mutants were injected intra-cisternally in rabbits, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was collected after three, nine, and fifteen hours. Microarray analysis of mutant-specific probes from CSF samples and inocula identified 82 genes of which mutants had become attenuated and eleven genes of which mutants had become enriched during infection. Screening results particularly point to an essential role for capsular polysaccharides (cps), nutrient uptake, and metabolism in meningitis. Detailed study on directed mutants of a subset of sixteen GAF targets in an experimental model of rat meningitis revealed that ten were significantly attenuated or enriched during competitive infection. Furthermore, we showed that mutants of adenylosuccinate synthetase (purA), flavodoxin (fld), and the substrate binding protein (livJ) of a branched chain amino acid ABC-transporter were essential for full blown meningitis in a mono-infection setup of rat meningitis. Overall, the GAF screen revealed the general restraint on nutrients encountered by the pneumococcus in CSF, while, except for cps genes, no ‘classic’ virulence factors appeared to be required for infection. This knowledge will contribute to a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of pneumococcal meningitis. The rabbit meningitis model was performed as previously described by Østergaard (PMID: 9661008 ). Briefly, 10E6 CFU of a S. pneumoniae mutant library was suspended in 20 µl beef-broth and injected into cisterna magna of four groups of four outbred New Zealand White rabbits of app. 2.5 kg (in one group one rabbit died). CSF (0.3 ml) samples were repeatedly obtained from the same rabbit by aspiration from indwelling spinal- and arterial cannules. Samples were collected before pleocytosis developed (three hrs), at the time of maximal pleocytosis (nine hrs), and at a time of slowing bacterial growth and abating pleocytosis (fifteen hrs ). Until further processing in the GAF protocol, CSF and inocula were stored with 15% glycerol at -80ºC. The GAF technology was performed as described previously (PMID: 17261526 ). Briefly, stored inocula and CSF obtained during the experimental rabbit meningitis experiments were defrosted, diluted in GM17 medium supplemented with spectinomycin, and grown to mid-log phase. Chromosomal DNA was isolated, digested with AluI endonuclease, and used as a template for in vitro transcription initiated from the T7 promoters of the marinerT7 transposon that is present in each mutant. After removal of template DNA by DNAseI treatment, mutant-specific T7 RNA was reverse transcribed in the presence of fluorescent Cy3/Cy5-labeled dUTP nucleotides. Labeled Cy3/Cy5-cDNA from the CSF samples and oppositely labeled Cy5/Cy3 cDNA from the inocula were combined, purified, and washed by ultrafiltration. The cDNA was hybridized to pneumococcal microarrays containing, 2,087 ORFs of Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 and 70-mer oligo's specific for the non-homologous ORFs in the R6, D39, 23F, INV104B, INV200, OXC141, and G54 strains, all spotted in duplicate (PMID: 18174343) . Dual channel array images were acquired on a GenePix 4200AL microarray scanner (Axon Instruments, Union City, CA). Microarray image files were analyzed with GenePix Pro software (Axon Instruments, Union City, CA). Spots were screened visually to identify those of low quality and removed from the data set prior to analysis. A net mean intensity filter based on hybridization signals obtained with R6-specific spots was applied in all experiments. Slide data were processed and normalized using MicroPreP (PMID: 15907200). Further analysis was performed using a CyberT implementation of the Student’s t test (cybert.microarray.ics.uci.edu). This web-based program lists the ratios of all intra-replicates (duplicate spots) and inter-replicates (different slides), the mean ratios per gene, and standard deviations and (Bayesian) p values assigned to the mean ratios. For identification of conditionally essential genes, only genes with a minimum of 6/8 (for groups of four rabbits) or 5/6 for the group of three rabbits) reliable measurements and a Bayesian p-value < 0.001 were included. Further selection criteria were applied, as only mutants displaying an average fold-change of >2.5 at a minimum of two time-points, or >4.0 at one time-point were accepted as significantly attenuated or enriched. The microarray data have been deposited in the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) under GEO Series accession number ...

Dataset Information

Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule determines disease severity in experimental pneumococcal meningitis.

Publications

Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule determines disease severity in experimental pneumococcal meningitis.

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