Abstract
Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae possesses large zinc metalloproteinases on its surface. To analyse the importance in virulence of three of these metalloproteinases, intranasal challenge of MF1 outbred mice was carried out using a range of infecting doses of wild type and knock-out pneumococcal mutant strains, in order to compare mice survival. Results: Observation of survival percentages over time and detection of LD50s of knock out)mutants in the proteinase genes in comparison to the type 4 TIGR4 wild type strain revealed two major aspects: i) Iga and ZmpB, present in all strains of S. pneumoniae, strongly contribute to virulence in mice; (ii) ZmpC, only present in about 25% of pneumococcal strains, has a lower influence on virulence in mice. Conclusions: These data suggest Iga, ZmpB and ZmpC as candidate surface proteins responsible for pneumococcal infection and potentially involved in distinct stages of pneumococcal disease.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | BMC microbiology |
Volume | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 3 2003 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology
- Microbiology (medical)