conclusions our study illustrates the importance of constantly monitoring the prevalent serotypes in any region in order to aid in the development of more effective vaccines. results our results revealed that in egypt, currently, the most prevalent serotypes were serogroup 6 and serotype 19f as they represented 58% of all isolates. high rates of resistance were found to different antibiotic cla...

The LytC lysozyme of Streptococcus pneumoniae forms part of the autolytic system of this important pathogen. This enzyme is composed of a C-terminal CM (catalytic module), belonging to the GH25 family of glycosyl hydrolases, and an N-terminal CBM (choline-binding module), made of eleven homologous repeats, that specifically recognizes the choline residues that are present in pneumococcal teicho...

Phosphocholine moieties decorating the pneumococcal surface are used as a docking station for a family of modular proteins, the so-called choline binding proteins or CBPs. Choline recognition is essential for CBPs function and may also be a determinant for their quaternary structure. There is little knowledge about modular arrangement or oligomeric structures in this family. Therefore, we have ...

The emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is pushing the need of alternative treatments. In this context, phage therapy is already a reality to successfully fight certain multiresistant bacteria. Among different phage gene products, murein hydrolases responsible of phage progeny liberation (also called lysins or endolysins) are weapons that target specific peptidoglycan bonds, l...

STUDY DESIGN Detection and serotyping of Streptococcus pneumoniae are important to assess the impact of pneumococcal vaccines. This study describes the diagnostic accuracy of PCR-based detection of S. pneumoniae directly from nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs collected for respiratory virus studies. METHODS Active surveillance for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in hospitalised adults was performe...

BACKGROUND As a standard method for pneumococcal carriage studies, the World Health Organization recommends nasopharyngeal swabs be transported and stored at cool temperatures in a medium containing skim-milk, tryptone, glucose and glycerol (STGG). An enrichment broth used for transport at room temperature in three carriage studies performed in Norway may have a higher sensitivity than STGG. We...

BACKGROUND Many surface proteins thought to promote Streptocococcus pneumoniae virulence have recently been discovered and are currently being considered as future vaccine targets. We assessed the prevalence of 16 virulence genes among 435 S. pneumoniae invasive isolates from France and the "African meningitis belt" region, with particular focus on serotype 1 (Sp1), to compare their geographica...

Two clinical isolates of viridans group streptococci (VS) with different degrees of susceptibility to optochin (OPT), i.e., fully OPT-susceptible (Opt(s)) VS strain 1162/99 (for which the MIC was equal to that for Streptococcus pneumoniae, 0.75 micro g/ml) and intermediate Opt(s) VS strain 1174/97 (MIC, 6 micro g/ml) were studied. Besides being OPT susceptible, they showed characteristics typic...

BACKGROUND Current diagnostic methods for detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children with suspected invasive pneumococcal disease have limitations of accuracy, timeliness, and patient convenience. This study aimed to determine the performance of pneumococcal load quantified with a real-time polymerase-chain reaction in nasopharyngeal samples to diagnose invasive pneumococcal disease in c...