Polyamine transporter in Streptococcus pneumoniae is essential for evading early innate immune responses in pneumococcal pneumonia.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common bacterial etiology of pneumococcal pneumonia in adults worldwide. Genomic plasticity, antibiotic resistance and extreme capsular antigenic variation complicates the design of effective therapeutic strategies. Polyamines are ubiquitous small cationic molecules necessary for full expression of pneumococcal virulence. Polyamine transport system is an attractive therapeutic target as it is highly conserved across pneumococcal serotypes. In this study, we compared an isogenic deletion strain of S. pneumoniae TIGR4 in polyamine transport operon (ΔpotABCD) with the wild type in a mouse model of pneumococcal pneumonia. Our results show that the wild type persists in mouse lung 24 h post infection while the mutant strain is cleared by host defense mechani

SUBMITTER: Rai AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4887915 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature