The Streptococcus pneumoniae beta-galactosidase is a surface protein

The beta-galactosidase gene of Streptococcus pneumoniae, bgaA, encodes a putative 2,235-amino-acid protein with the two amino acid motifs characteristic of the glycosyl hydrolase family of proteins. In addition, an N-terminal signal sequence and a C-terminal LPXTG motif typical of surface-associated proteins of gram-positive bacteria are present. Trypsin treatment of cells resulted in solubilization of the enzyme, documenting that it is associated with the cell envelope. In order to obtain defined mutants suitable for lacZ reporter experiments, the bgaA gene was disrupted, resulting in a complete absence of endogenous beta-galactosidase activity. The results are consistent with beta-galactosidase being a surface protein that seems not to be involved in lactose metabolism but that may play a role during pathogenesis.     

Resistance mechanism of chloramphenicol in Streptococcus haemolyticus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus faecalis.

The chloramphenicol resistance of Streptococcus haemolyticus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus faecalis isolated from clinical materials was proved to be due to an inactivating enzyme produced by these bacteria. The inactivated products of chloramphenicol were identified as 1-acetoxy, 3-acetoxy and 1,3-diacetoxy derivatives by thin-layer chromatography and infrared spectroscopy. The responsible enzyme was thus confirmed to be chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. The enzyme was inducible. It was partially purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-cellulose chromatography and gel filtration on Sephadex G-150. The enzymes obtained from S. haemolyticus, S. pneumoniae and S. faecalis have been compared with the conclusion that they are identical with respect to molecular weight (approximately 75,000-80,000), optimum pH and heat stability.     

Neutrophil transendothelial migration in vitro to Streptococcus pneumoniae is pneumolysin dependent

The recruitment of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) from the vascular space to the alveolar air space is an early event in host defense against pneumococcal pneumonia. Pneumolysin is a virulence factor for Streptococcus pneumoniae, but a specific role for pneumolysin in neutrophil-endothelial cell interactions has not been investigated. Using a Transwell system, we studied in vitro migration of PMNs across a monolayer of human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells in response to wild-type S. pneumoniae (D39) and a pneumolysin-deficient mutant (plnA(-)) incubated on the abluminal surface of the monolayer. S. pneumoniae induction of PMN migration was dose dependent and elicited by > or =10(5) D39. Mutants lacking pneumolysin had dramatically reduced potency for eliciting PMN migration compared with the parent strain (5 x 10(6) plnA(-) elicits 18.6% PMN migration vs. 55.5% for 5 x 10(6) D39). The disparity between D39 and plnA(-) persisted in ethanol-fixed bacteria, consistent with the properties of pneumolysin. Neither conditioned medium from D39 nor purified pneumolysin elicited PMN migration to the same extent as the intact D39, suggesting that the role of pneumolysin in eliciting PMN migration requires a more complex interaction between the organism, the endothelium, and the PMN. Both D39 and plnA(-) adhered to, and translocated across, the endothelium in the abluminal to luminal direction and elicited similar levels of IL-8 production. Neither strain elicited upregulation of the endothelial adhesion molecules ICAM-1, VCAM-1, or E-selectin, and they did not cause translocation of NF-kappaB to the nucleus. These findings demonstrate a novel role for pneumolysin in pneumococcus-induced PMN recruitment across the pulmonary endothelium.     

Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 suppresses pneumonia induced by Streptococcus pneumoniae in mice

Aims: Oral administration of probiotics has been known to improve inflammatory responses against infectious diseases. Here, we describe the inhibitory effect of oral intake of heat‐killed Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 (b240) on pneumococcal pneumonia in a murine experimental model. Method and Results: The mice treated with oral b240 for 21 days before Streptococcus pneumoniae infection exhibited prolonged survival time and less body weight loss, compared with saline‐treated control mice. Mild pneumonia with significantly reduced secretion of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines according to related mitogen‐activated protein kinase signalling molecules (phosphorylated c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase) was found in b240‐treated mice, whereas severe pneumonia with hypercytokinemia was evident in control mice. Prominent reduction in the number of pneumococci and elevated expression of Toll‐like receptor 2 and 4 in the lung tissues was concomitantly noted in b240‐treated mice. Conclusions: These findings indicate that b240 has inhibitory effects on pneumococcal pneumonia induced by Strep. pneumoniae infection and improves inflammatory tissue responses, resulting in reduced damages to the respiratory tissues. Significance and Impact of the Study: These results demonstrate that oral administration of b240 might protect host animals from Strep. pneumoniae infection by augmentation of innate immune response.     

Streptococcus pneumoniae isoprenoid biosynthesis is downregulated by diphosphomevalonate: an antimicrobial target

The toll that Streptococcus pneumoniae exacts on the welfare of humanity is enormous. This organism claims the lives of approximately 3700 people daily, the majority of whom are children below the age of 5, and the situation could worsen due to the increasing incidence of pernicious, multiple-antibiotic-resistant strains. Here we report the discovery and characterization of a new allosteric site, shown to be absent in humans, that can be used to switch off an essential pathway in S. pneumoniae, the mevalonate pathway. Diphosphomevalonate (DPM), an intermediate in the pathway, binds with high affinity (K(d) = 530 nM) to mevalonate kinase, the first enzyme in the pathway, and inactivates it. Steady-state and equilibrium binding measurements reveal that DPM binding is noncompetitive versus substrates. DPM binds at an allosteric site, and inhibition cannot be overcome by an increasing substrate concentration. The DPM-binding site is a promising target for the development of new antimicrobial agents.     

CpsB is a modulator of capsule-associated tyrosine kinase activity in Streptococcus pneumoniae

Tyrosine phosphorylation is associated with polysaccharide synthesis in a number of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In Streptococcus pneumoniae, CpsB, CpsC, and CpsD affect tyrosine phosphorylation and are critical for the production of a mature capsule in vitro. To characterize the interactions between these proteins and the phosphorylation event they modulate, cps2B, cps2C, and cps2D from the capsule type 2 S. pneumoniae D39 were cloned and expressed both individually and in combination in Escherichia coli. Cps2D purified from E. coli was not phosphorylated unless it was co-expressed with its cognate transmembrane domain, Cps2C. Purified phosphorylated Cps2D had tyrosine kinase activity and could phosphorylate both dephosphorylated Cps2D and an exogenous substrate (poly-Glu-Tyr) in the absence of ATP. Cps2B exhibited phosphatase activity against both purified phosphorylated Cps2D and p-nitrophenyl phosphate. An additional role for Cps2B as an inhibitor of Cps2D phosphorylation was demonstrated in both co-expression experiments in E. coli and in vitro experiments where it blocked the transphosphorylation of Cps2D even in the presence of the phosphatase inhibitor sodium orthovanadate. cps2C and cps2D deletion mutants in S. pneumoniae produced no detectable mature capsule during laboratory culture. Both were avirulent in systemic mouse infections and were unable to colonize the nasopharynx, suggesting that the failure to produce capsule was not dependent on the environment. Based on these results, we propose a model for capsule regulation where CpsB, CpsC, CpsD, and ATP form a stable complex that enhances capsule synthesis.     

Frame-shift mutants induced by quinacrine are recognized by the mismatch repair system in Streptococcus pneumoniae

Summary We describe the isolation of amethopterin-resistant mutants induced by quinacrine treatment of exponentially growing cultures of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Only mutants located by recombination analysis in a few hundred base pairs were further studied. They were cloned and their DNA sequences show that most of them are ±1-base frame-shift mutants. They are excised and repaired to a degree similar to transition mutants (low efficiency class), suggesting that the mismatches resulting from a transition or a ±1-base mutation are similar substrates for the Hex mismatch repair system.     

The encapsulated strain TIGR4 of Streptococcus pneumoniae is phagocytosed but is resistant to intracellular killing by mouse microglia

The polysaccharide capsule is a major virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae as it confers resistance to phagocytosis. The encapsulated serotype 4 TIGR4 strain was shown to be efficiently phagocytosed by the mouse microglial cell line BV2, whereas the type 3 HB565 strain resisted phagocytosis. Comparing survival after uptake of TIGR4 or its unencapsulated derivative FP23 in gentamicin protection and phagolysosome maturation assays, it was shown that TIGR4 was protected from intracellular killing. Pneumococcal capsular genes were up-regulated in intracellular TIGR4 bacteria recovered from microglial cells. Actual presence of bacteria inside BV2 cells was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for both TIGR4 and FP23 strains, but typical phagosomes/phagolysosomes were detected only in cells infected with the unencapsulated strain. In a mouse model of meningitis based on intracranic inoculation of pneumococci, TIGR4 caused lethal meningitis with an LD₅₀ of 2 × 10² CFU, whereas the LD₅₀ for the unencapsulated FP23 was greater than 10⁷ CFU. Phagocytosis of TIGR4 by microglia was also demonstrated by TEM and immunohistochemistry on brain samples from infected mice. The results indicate that encapsulation does not protect the TIGR4 strain from phagocytosis by microglia, while it affords resistance to intracellular killing.     

Blood group antigen recognition by a Streptococcus pneumoniae virulence factor

The Streptococcus pneumoniae fucose utilization operon includes a gene encoding a virulence factor that belongs to family 98 in the glycoside hydrolase classification. This protein contains a C-terminal triplet of fucose binding modules that have significant amino acid sequence identity with the Anguilla anguilla fucolectin. Functional studies of these fucose binding modules reveal binding to fucosylated oligosaccharides and suggest the importance of multivalent binding. The high resolution crystal structures of ligand bound forms of one fucose binding module uncovers the molecular basis of fucose, ABH blood group antigen, and Lewisy antigen binding. These studies are extended by fluorescence microscopy to show specific binding to mouse lung tissue. These modules define a new family of carbohydrate binding modules now classified as family 47.     

Pilus operon evolution in Streptococcus pneumoniae is driven by positive selection and recombination

Background

The evolution of bacterial organelles involved in host-pathogen interactions is subject to intense and competing selective pressures due to the need to maintain function while escaping the host immune response. To characterize the interplay of these forces in an important pathogen, we sequenced the rlrA islet, a chromosomal region encoding for a pilus-like structure involved in adherence to lung epithelial cells in vitro and in colonization in a murine model of infection, in 44 clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Results

We found that the rrgA and rrgB genes, encoding the main structural components of the pilus, are under the action of positive selection. In contrast, the rrgC gene, coding for a component present in low quantities in the assembled pilus, and the srtB, srtC and srtD genes, coding for three sortase enzymes essential for pilus assembly but probably not directly exposed to the host immune system, show no evidence of positive selection. We found several events of homologous recombination in the region containing these genes, identifying 4 major recombination hotspots. An analysis of the most recent recombination events shows a high level of mosaicism of the region coding for the rrgC, srtB, srtC and srtD genes.

Conclusions

In the rlrA islet, the genes coding for proteins directly exposed to the host immune response are under the action of positive selection, and exist in distinct forms in the population of circulating strains. The genes coding for proteins not directly exposed on the surface of the bacterial cell are more conserved probably due to the homogenizing effect of recombination.     

The immunoglobulin A1 proteinase from Streptococcus pneumoniae is inhibited by tetracycline compounds

Streptococcus pneumoniae produces a zinc-dependent proteinase that cleaves human immunoglobulin (Ig) A1 in the hinge region. This metalloproteinase is hypothesized to act as a virulence factor by allowing S. pneumoniae to evade the protection provided by IgA1, thus enhancing its ability to colonize the human nasopharyngeal region. No biologically compatible inhibitors of this enzyme have been identified. We determined that doxycycline and a chemically modified tetracycline inhibit this enzyme in vitro at low micromolar concentrations.     

The Impact of Pneumolysin on the Macrophage Response to Streptococcus pneumoniae is Strain-Dependent

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the world''s leading cause of pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis and otitis media. A major pneumococcal virulence factor is the cholesterol-dependent cytolysin, which has the defining property of forming pores in cholesterol-containing membranes. In recent times a clinically significant and internationally successful serotype 1 ST306 clone has been found to express a non-cytolytic variant of Ply (Ply₃₀₆). However, while the pneumococcus is a naturally transformable organism, strains of the ST306 clonal group have to date been virtually impossible to transform, severely restricting efforts to understand the role of non-cytolytic Ply in the success of this clone. In this study isogenic Ply mutants were constructed in the D39 background and for the first time in the ST306 background (A0229467) to enable direct comparisons between Ply variants for their impact on the immune response in a macrophage-like cell line. Strains that expressed cytolytic Ply were found to induce a significant increase in IL-1β release from macrophage-like cells compared to the non-cytolytic and Ply-deficient strains in a background-independent manner, confirming the requirement for pore formation in the Ply-dependent activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. However, cytolytic activity in the D39 background was found to induce increased expression of the genes encoding GM-CSF (CSF2), p19 subunit of IL-23 (IL23A) and IFNβ (IFNB1) compared to non-cytolytic and Ply-deficient D39 mutants, but had no effect in the A0229467 background. The impact of Ply on the immune response to the pneumococcus is highly dependent on the strain background, thus emphasising the importance of the interaction between specific virulence factors and other components of the genetic background of this organism.     

Tolerance of a Phage Element by Streptococcus pneumoniae Leads to a Fitness Defect during Colonization

The pathogenesis of the disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae begins with colonization of the upper respiratory tract. Temperate phages have been identified in the genomes of up to 70% of clinical isolates. How these phages affect the bacterial host during colonization is unknown. Here, we examined a clinical isolate that carries a novel prophage element, designated Spn1, which was detected in both integrated and episomal forms. Surprisingly, both lytic and lysogenic Spn1 genes were expressed under routine growth conditions. Using a mouse model of asymptomatic colonization, we demonstrate that the Spn1⁻ strain outcompeted the Spn1⁺ strain >70-fold. To determine if Spn1 causes a fitness defect through a trans-acting factor, we constructed an Spn1⁺ mutant that does not become an episome or express phage genes. This mutant competed equally with the Spn1⁻ strain, indicating that expression of phage genes or phage lytic activity is required to confer this fitness defect. In vitro, we demonstrate that the presence of Spn1 correlated with a defect in LytA-mediated autolysis. Furthermore, the Spn1⁺ strain displayed increased chain length and resistance to lysis by penicillin compared to the Spn⁻ strain, indicating that Spn1 alters the cell wall physiology of its host strain. We posit that these changes in cell wall physiology allow for tolerance of phage gene products and are responsible for the relative defect of the Spn1⁺ strain during colonization. This study provides new insight into how bacteria and prophages interact and affect bacterial fitness in vivo.     

Glycosyltransferase domain of penicillin-binding protein 2a from Streptococcus pneumoniae is membrane associated

Penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) are bacterial cytoplasmic membrane proteins that catalyze the final steps of the peptidoglycan synthesis. Resistance to beta-lactams in Streptococcus pneumoniae is caused by low-affinity PBPs. S. pneumoniae PBP 2a belongs to the class A high-molecular-mass PBPs having both glycosyltransferase (GT) and transpeptide (TP) activities. Structural and functional studies of both domains are required to unravel the mechanisms of resistance, a prerequisite for the development of novel antibiotics. The extracellular region of S. pneumoniae PBP 2a has been expressed (PBP 2a*) in Escherichia coli as a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein. The acylation kinetic parameters of PBP 2a* for beta-lactams were determined by stopped-flow fluorometry. The acylation efficiency toward benzylpenicillin was much lower than that toward cefotaxime, a result suggesting that PBP 2a participates in resistance to cefotaxime and other beta-lactams, but not in resistance to benzylpenicillin. The TP domain was purified following limited proteolysis. PBP 2a* required detergents for solubility and interacted with lipid vesicles, while the TP domain was water soluble. We propose that PBP 2a* interacts with the cytoplasmic membrane in a region distinct from its transmembrane anchor region, which is located between Lys 78 and Ser 156 of the GT domain.     

Major peptidoglycan transglycosylase activity in Streptococcus pneumoniae that is not a penicillin-binding protein

Abstract In this communication, results support the conclusion that succinate can repress hexose-catabolizing enzymes in Rhizobium sp. 32H1 in a manner similar to catabolite repression, such as that seen in Pseudomonas aeruginosa [9,27]. Enzymes of the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas and Entner-Doudoroff pathways were only detected in cells cultured on hexoses and were not present in succinate-grown cells. Initial enzymes of fructose and mannitol metabolism were present in cells gorwn on fructose and mannitol, respectively. NADP-linked 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase was not detected in cell-free extracts regardless of the carbon source.     

Interference between Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus: In vitro hydrogen peroxide-mediated killing by Streptococcus pneumoniae

The bactericidal activity of Streptococcus pneumoniae toward Staphylococcus aureus is mediated by hydrogen peroxide. Catalase eliminated this activity. Pneumococci grown anaerobically or genetically lacking pyruvate oxidase (SpxB) were not bactericidal, nor were nonpneumococcal streptococci. These results provide a possible mechanistic explanation for the interspecies interference observed in epidemiologic studies.     

DNA uptake in competent Streptococcus pneumoniae requires ATP and is regulated by cytoplasmic pH

We analyzed the ability of 120 encapsulated strains of B. fragilis to agglutinate guinea pig and human red blood cells. Sixteen strains showed a strong hemagglutination (HA) ability, 21 strains a moderate HA ability, 7 strains a weak HA ability and 74 strains did not agglutinate the tested red blood cells. Six strains tested from each HA group were able to adhere to cheek epithelial cells and to a cultured human intestinal cell line. Hemagglutinating strains were the most adhesive. By electron microscopy, pilus-like structures were found in three of the encapsulated adhesive strains. Treatment of the bacterial cells with pronase E reduced both HA ability and adherence of piliated encapsulated, and of piliated non-encapsulated strains. Glucosidase treatment of cells reduced HA activity and adherence of piliated encapsulated and of non-piliated encapsulated strains. Finally, it was found that hemagglutinating strains are more frequently isolated from clinical specimens (55%) than from feces of healthy donors (20%).