Abstract
Several characteristics of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) combine to make it a particularly problematic pathogen. Firstly, the pneumococcus has the capacity to cause disease through the expression of virulence factors such as its polysaccharide capsule and pore-forming toxin. In addition, the pneumococcus is highly adaptable as demonstrated by its ability to acquire and disseminate resistance to multiple antibiotics. Although the pneumococcus is a major cause of disease, the organism is most commonly an “asymptomatic” colonizer of its human host (the carrier state), with transmission occurring exclusively from this reservoir of commensal organisms. Thus, it is unclear how the organism’s virulence and adaptability promote its persistence or host to host spread during its carrier state. This review summarizes current understanding of how these characteristics may contribute to the commensal lifestyle of the pneumococcus.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tomasz (1995) Pneumococcus at the gates. New Eng J Med 333:514–515
Musher D (2003) How contagious are common respiratory tract infections? N Engl J Med 348:1256–1266
Austrian R (1986) Some aspects of the pneumococcal carrier state. J Antimicrob Chemother 18:35–45
Bogaert D, de Groot R, Hermans P (2004) Streptococcus pneumoniae colonisation: the key to pneumococcal disease. Lancet Infect Dis 4:144–154
Kilian M, Poulsen K, Blomqvist T, Håvarstein L, Bek-Thomsen M, Tettelin H, Sørensen U (2008) Evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae and its close commensal relatives. PLoS One 3:e2683
Watson DA, Musher DM (1990) Interuption of capsule production in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 3 by insertion of transposon Tn916. Infect Immun 58:3135–3138
Marriott H, Mitchell T, Dockrell D (2008) Pneumolysin: a double-edged sword during the host-pathogen interaction. Curr Mol Med 8:497–550
Maus U, Srivastava M, Paton J, Mack M, Everhart M, Blackwell T, Christman J, Schlondorff D, Seeger W, Lohmeyer J (2004) Pneumolysin-induced lung injury is independent of leukocyte trafficking into the alveolar space. J Immunol 173:1307–1312
Ratner A, Hippe K, Aguilar J, Bender M, Nelson A, Weiser J (2006) Epithelial cells are sensitive detectors of bacterial pore-forming toxins. J Biol Chem 281:12994–12998
King S, Hippe K, Weiser J (2006) Deglycosylation of human glycoconjugates by the sequential activities of exoglycosidases expressed by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mol Microbiol 59:961–974
Bender MH, Weiser JN (2006) The atypical amino-terminal LPNTG-containing domain of the pneumococcal human IgA1-specific protease is required for proper enzyme localization and function. Mol Microbiol 61:526–543
McCool T, Cate T, Moy G, Weiser J (2002) The immune response to pneumococcal proteins during experimental human carriage. J Exp Med 195:359–365
McCool T, Weiser J (2004) Limited role of antibody in clearance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a murine model of colonization. Infect Immun 72:5807–5813
Wu H, Virolainen A, Mathews B, King J, Russell M, Briles D (1997) Establishment of a Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal colonization model in adult mice. Microb Pathog 23:127–137
Nelson A, Roche A, Gould J, Chim K, Ratner A, Weiser J (2007) Capsule enhances pneumococcal colonization by limiting mucus-mediated clearance. Infect Immun 75:83–90
Beisswenger C, Lysenko E, Weiser J (2009) Early bacterial colonization induces toll-like receptor-dependent transforming growth factor beta signaling in the epithelium. Infect Immun 77:2212–2220
Beisswenger C, Coyne C, Shchepetov M, Weiser J (2007) Role of p38 MAP kinase and transforming growth factor-beta signaling in transepithelial migration of invasive bacterial pathogens. J Biol Chem 282:28700–28708
Matthias K, Roche A, Standish A, Shchepetov M, Weiser J (2008) Neutrophil-toxin interactions promote antigen delivery and mucosal clearance of Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Immunol 180:6246–6254
van Rossum A, Lysenko E, Weiser J (2005) Host and bacterial factors contributing to the clearance of colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae in a murine model. Infect Immun 73:7718–7726
Zhang Z, Clarke T, Weiser J (2009) Cellular effectors mediating Th17-dependent clearance of pneumococcal colonization in mice. J Clin Invest 119:1899–1909
Standish A, Weiser JN (2009) Human neutrophils kill Streptococcus pneumoniae via serine proteases. J Immunol 183:2602–2609
Weinberger D, Trzciński K, Lu Y, Bogaert D, Brandes A, Galagan J, Anderson P, Malley R, Lipsitch M (2009) Pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide structure predicts serotype prevalence. PLoS Pathog 5:e1000476
Sleeman K, Griffiths D, Shackley F, Diggle L, Gupta S, Maiden M, Moxon E, Crook D, Peto T (2006) Capsular serotype-specific attack rates and duration of carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a population of children. J Infect Dis 194:682–688
Brueggemann AB, Griffiths DT, Meats E, Peto T, Crook DW, Spratt BG (2003) Clonal relationships between invasive and carriage Streptococcus pneumoniae and serotype- and clone-specific differences in invasive disease potential. J Infect Dis 187:1424–1432
Sjöström K, Blomberg C, Fernebro J, Dagerhamn J, Morfeldt E, Barocchi M, Browall S, Moschioni M, Andersson M, Henriques F et al (2007) Clonal success of piliated penicillin nonsusceptible pneumococci. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:12907–12912
Weiser J, Austrian R, Sreenivasan P, Masure H (1994) Phase variation in pneumococcal opacity: relationship between colonial morphology and nasopharyngeal colonization. Infect Immun 62:2582–2589
Cundell DR, Weiser JN, Shen J, Young A, Tuomanen EI (1995) Relationship between colonial morphology and adherence of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Infect Immun 63:757–761
Kim JO, Romero-Steiner S, Sørensen U, Blom J, Carvalho M, Barnardi S, Carlone G, Weiser JN (1999) Relationship between cell-surface carbohydrates and intrastrain variation on opsonophagocytosis of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Infec Immun 67:2327–2333
Weiser J, Bae D, Epino H, Gordon S, Kapoor M, Zenewicz L, Shchepetov M (2001) Changes in availability of oxygen accentuate differences in capsular polysaccharide expression by phenotypic variants and clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Infect Immun 69:5430–5439
Klugman K (2009) The significance of serotype replacement for pneumococcal disease and antibiotic resistance. Adv Exp Med Biol 634:121–128
Dawid S, Roche A, Weiser J (2007) The blp bacteriocins of Streptococcus pneumoniae mediate intraspecies competition both in vitro and in vivo. Infect Immun 75:443–451
Dawid S, Sebert M, Weiser J (2009) Bacteriocin activity of Streptococcus pneumoniae is controlled by the serine protease HtrA via posttranscriptional regulation. J Bacteriol 191:1509–1518
Lysenko E, Ratner A, Nelson A, Weiser J (2005) The role of innate immune responses in the outcome of interspecies competition for colonization of mucosal surfaces. PLoS Pathogens 1:1–9
Lysenko E, Clarke T, Shchepetov M, Ratner A, Roper D, Dowson C, Weiser J (2007) Nod1-signaling overcomes resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae to opsonophagocytic killing. PLoS Pathog 3:1073–1081
Peterson SN, Sung CK, Cline R, Desai BV, Snesrud EC, Luo P, Walling J, Li H, Mintz M, Tsegaye G et al (2004) Identification of competence pheromone responsive genes in Streptococcus pneumoniae by use of DNA microarrays. Mol Microbiol 51:1051–1070
Spellerberg B, Cundell DR, Sandros J, Pearce BJ, Idanpaan-Heikkila I, Rosenow C, Masure HR (1996) Pyruvate oxidase, as a determinant of virulence in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mol Microbiol 19:803–813
Pericone C, Overweg K, PW H, Weiser J (2000) Inhibitory and bactericidal effects of hydrogen peroxide production by Streptococcus pneumoniae on other inhabitants of the upper respiratory tract. Infect Immun 68:3990–3997
Regev-Yochay G, Trzcinsk IK, Thompson C, Malley R, Lipsitch M (2006) Interference between Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus: in vitro hydrogen peroxide-mediated killing by Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Bacteriol 188:4996–5001
Park B, Nizet V, Liu G (2008) Role of Staphylococcus aureus catalase in niche competition against Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Bacteriol 190:2275–2278
Hoffmann O, Zweigner J, Smith S, Freyer D, Mahrhofer C, Dagand E, Tuomanen E, Weber J (2006) Interplay of pneumococcal hydrogen peroxide and host-derived nitric oxide. Infect Immun 74:5058–5066
Feldman C, Anderson R, Cockeran R, Mitchell T, Cole P, Wilson R (2002) The effects of pneumolysin and hydrogen peroxide, alone and in combination, on human ciliated epithelium in vitro. Respir Med 96:580–585
Pericone C, Bae D, Shchepetov M, McCool T, Weiser J (2002) Short-sequence tandem and nontandem DNA repeats and endogenous hydrogen peroxide production contribute to genetic instability of Streptococcus pneumoniae. J Bacteriol 184:4392–4399
Davidson R, Cavalcanti R, Brunton J, Bast D, De Azavedo J, Kibsey P, Fleming C, Low D (2002) Resistance to levofloxacin and failure of treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia. N Engl J Med 346:747–750
Dowson C, Coffey T, Spratt B (1994) Origin and molecular epidemiology of penicillin-binding-protein-mediated resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics. Trends Microbiol 2:361–366
Acknowledgments
The author is indebted to the current and former members of his laboratory contributing to these studies. This work was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service (AI44231, AI38446, and AI78538).
Conflict of interest statement
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weiser, J.N. The pneumococcus: why a commensal misbehaves. J Mol Med 88, 97–102 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-009-0557-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-009-0557-x