Title |
Pneumococcal wall teichoic acid is required for the pathogenesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae in murine models |
Author |
Hongmei Xu1, Libin Wang1, Jian Huang1, Yanqing Zhang1, Feng Ma1, Jianmin Wang1, Wenchun Xu1, Xuemei Zhang1, Yibing Yin1, and Kaifeng Wu1,2* |
Address |
1Key Laboratory of Diagnostic Medicine designated by the Ministry of Education, College of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, P. R. China, 2Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, P. R. China |
Bibliography |
Journal of Microbiology, 53(2),147-154, 2015,
|
DOI |
10.1007/s12275-015-4616-4
|
Key Words |
Streptococcus pneumoniae, wall teichoic acid, colonization,
pathogenesis |
Abstract |
Pneumococcal asymptomatic colonization of the respiratory
tracts is a major risk for invasive pneumococcal disease.
We have previously shown that pneumococcal wall teichoic
acid (WTA) was involved in pneumococcal infection of sepsis
and adherence to epithelial and endothelial cells. In this
study, we investigated the contribution of pneumococcal
WTA to bacterial colonization and dissemination in murine
models. The result showed that nasopharynx colonizing D39
bacterial cells have a distinct phenotype showing an increased
exposure of teichoic acids relative to medium-grown bacteria.
The WTA-deficient mutants were impaired in their colonization
to the nasopharynx and lungs, and led to a mild inflammation
in the lungs at 36 h post-inoculation. Pretreatment
of the murine nares with WTA reduced the ability of
wild type D39 bacteria to colonize the nasopharynx. In addition,
the WTA-deficient strain was impaired in its ability
to invade the blood and brain following intranasal administration.
WTA-deficient D39 strain was reduced in C3 deposition
but was more susceptible to the killing by the neutrophils
as compared with its parent strain. Our results also
demonstrated that the WTA enhanced pneumococcal colonization
and dissemination independently of the host strains.
These results indicate that WTA plays an important role in
pneumococcal pathogenesis, both in colonization and dissemination
processes. |