Identification of novel pneumolysin alleles from paediatric carriage isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Jefferies, J. M. C., Tocheva, A. S., Rubery, H., Bennett, J., Garland, J., Christodoulides, M., Faust, S. N., Smith, A. , Mitchell, T.J. and Clarke, S. C. (2010) Identification of novel pneumolysin alleles from paediatric carriage isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 59(7), pp. 808-814. (doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.018663-0)

Abstract

Pneumolysin (Ply) is a major virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae and is produced by all known clinical isolates of pneumococci. Pneumolysin toxoids are being considered as vaccine candidates. We investigated the diversity of pneumolysin among 194 nasopharyngeal pneumococci characterized by serotyping and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Eight Ply protein alleles were identified, four of which were novel. The 4 novel alleles varied at 10 different amino acid positions, from a total of 147, 3 of these substitutions have been previously reported in different combinations. The protein allele correlated closely with MLST. It is critical that the presence of pneumolysin variants is considered with regards to the potential use of Ply in future vaccine formulations, as variation in Ply amino acid sequence may influence the immunogenicity of vaccines based on the presence of an individual Ply allele.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Smith, Professor Andrew and Mitchell, Professor Timothy
• Authors: Jefferies, J. M. C., Tocheva, A. S., Rubery, H., Bennett, J., Garland, J., Christodoulides, M., Faust, S. N., Smith, A., Mitchell, T.J., and Clarke, S. C.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing > Dental School; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity
• Journal Name: Journal of Medical Microbiology
• ISSN: 0022-2615