Immune responses against cardiac myosin and group A streptococcal M protein have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease. Although cardiac myosin is known to produce myocarditis in susceptible animals, it has never been investigated for its role in production of valvular heart disease, the most serious sequelae of group A streptococcal infection in acute rheumatic fever. ...

One of the recently described extracellular products of Group A streptococci is diphosphopyridine nucleotidase (DPNase) (1). This enzyme has received attention as a substance of possible importance in the etiology of either rheumatic fever or glomerulonephritis because a) it was isolated from cardiotoxic fractions of supernates of broth cultures of Group A streptococci (2, 3) and b) almost all ...

A recent paper in Neurology by Annette Schrag et al. [1,2] with an accompanying editorial by D.L. Gilbert and R. Kurlan [2] caught my attention as being a perfect example of what modern medicine is doing, right and wrong in its current policies regarding the statistical treatment of patient data. Schrag et al. did a magnificent job surveying a database of 678,862 UK patients to search for assoc...

Bacterial pathogens must overcome host immune mechanisms to acquire micronutrients for successful replication and infection. Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A streptococcus (GAS), is a human pathogen that causes a variety of clinical manifestations, and disease prevention is hampered by lack of a human GAS vaccine. Herein, we report that the mammalian host recruits calprotectin (CP)...

OBJECTIVES Diagnosis and correct treatment of group A streptococcal sore throat is important particularly to prevent non-suppurative sequelae. Clinical findings continue to be used to differentiate streptococcal infection from viral sore throat. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that streptococcal sore throat diagnosis should always be performed by microbiological identification met...

OBJECTIVE To identify and to establish the prevalence of ORs factors associated with increased risk for early-onset group B streptococcal (EOGBS) infection in neonates. streptococcal (EOGBS) infection in neonates. STUDY DESIGN Literature review and reanalysis of published data. RESULTS Risk factors for EOGBS infection include group B streptococcal (GBS)-positive vaginal culture at delivery ...

Lipids extracted from rabbit skin block the hemolytic capacity of SO and also suppress the neutralizing antibody response to this streptococcal extracellular antigen in rabbith immunized intravenosly. The modification in antibody response is specific for SO; the antibody responses to streptococcal DNase B and to streptococcal NADase are not affected. Cholesterol, a lipid present in abundance in...

Post-streptococcal autoimmunity affects millions worldwide, targeting multiple organs including the heart, brain, and kidneys. To explore the post-streptococcal autoimmunity spectrum, we used western blot analyses, to screen 310 sera from healthy subjects with (33%) and without (67%) markers of recent streptococcal infections [anti-Streptolysin O (ASLO) or anti-DNAse B (ADB)]. A 58 KDa protein,...