background: the pathogenesis of nontypeable haemophilus influenzae (nthi) begins with adhesion to the rhinopharyngeal mucosa. almost 38-80% of nthi clinical isolates produce proteins that belong to the high molecular weight (hmw) family of adhesins, which are believed to facilitate colonization. methods: in the present study, the prevalence of hmwa, which encodes the hmw adhesin, was determined...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a term based on the demonstration of irreversible airways obstruction, introduced to unify a range of chronic progressive diseases of the airways consequent upon inhalation of toxins. While disease is initiated and progressed by inhaled toxins, an additional pathway of damage has emerged, with particular relevance to acute exacerbations. Exacerbation...

Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a key pathogen in COPD, being associated with airway inflammation and risk of exacerbation. Why some patients are susceptible to colonisation is not understood. We hypothesised that this susceptibility may be due to a deficiency in mucosal humoral immunity. The aim of our study (NCT01701869) was to quantify the amount and specificity of antibodies a...

Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) are human-adapted Gram-negative bacteria that comprise part of the normal flora of the human upper airway, but are also responsible for a number of mucosal infections such as otitis media and bronchitis. These infections often recur and can become chronic. To characterize the effect of long-term co-culture of NTHi with human tissues, we infected primar...

Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) causes acute otitis media (AOM) in young children. In our recent paper in Microbes and Infection we described the transcriptome signature elicited from PBMCs at onset of AOM caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. In the current study we found very different results with NTHi AOM infections; 5.1% of 29 187 genes were differentially regulated by more...

OBJECTIVE Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines reduce the prevalence of vaccine serotypes carried in the nasopharynx. Because this could alter carriage of other potential pathogens, we assessed the nasopharyngeal microbiome of children who had been vaccinated with 10-valent pneumococcal non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein-D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV). METHODS Profiles of the nasopharyngea...

A subset of patients with stable asthma has prominent neutrophilic and reduced eosinophilic inflammation, which is associated with attenuated airways hyper-responsiveness (AHR). Haemophilus influenzae has been isolated from the airways of neutrophilic asthmatics; however, the nature of the association between infection and the development of neutrophilic asthma is not understood. Our aim was to...

Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is a common acute otitis media pathogen, with an incidence that is increased by previous antibiotic treatment. NTHi is also an emerging causative agent of other chronic infections in humans, some linked to morbidity, and all of which impose substantial treatment costs. In this study we explore the possibility that antibiotic exposure may stimulate biof...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167250.].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is divided into two distinct genotypes, type I and type II, based on the structure of capsular polysaccharides. The capsulation locus of Haemophilus influenzae type b consists of three functionally distinct regions, designated regions 1 to 3. Region III contains hcsA and hcsB genes; however, notable sequence variation in this region c...