The overall goal for this review is to summarize the current body of knowledge about the structure and function of major known antigens of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major gram-positive bacterial pathogen of humans. This information is then related to the role of these proteins in pneumococcal pathogenesis and in the development of new vaccines and/or other antimicrobial agents. S. pneumoniae ...

BACKGROUND CRM- based pneumococcal conjugate vaccines generally have little impact on the overall prevalence of pneumococcal carriage because of serotype replacement. In contrast, protein vaccines could substantially reduce the overall prevalence of pneumococcal carriage with potential microbiological and clinical consequences. Therefore, trials of pneumococcal protein vaccines need to evaluate...

BACKGROUND Streptococcus pneumoniae is the chief cause of pneumonia in older adults, but it remains unclear whether use of the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine alters the overall risk of community-acquired pneumonia. In a large population of older adults, we assessed the effectiveness of the pneumococcal vaccine. METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, 47,365 Group Health Cooperative m...

The etiological diagnosis of infection by Streptococcus pneumoniae in children is difficult, and the use of indirect techniques is frequently warranted. We aimed to study the use of pneumococcal proteins for the serological diagnosis of pneumococcal infection in children with pneumonia. We analyzed paired serum samples from 13 Brazilian children with invasive pneumococcal pneumonia (positive co...

BACKGROUND Winter-seasonal epidemics of pneumococcal disease provide an opportunity to understand the drivers of incidence. We sought to determine whether seasonality of invasive pneumococcal disease is caused by increased nasopharyngeal transmission of the bacteria or increased susceptibility to invasive infections driven by cocirculating winter respiratory viruses. METHODS We analyzed pneum...

BACKGROUND Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine prevents recurrent acute otitis media (AOM) in infants immunised at 2, 4, 6, and 12-15 months of age. We aimed to find out whether this vaccine also prevents AOM in older children who have had previous episodes of AOM. METHODS In this double-blind, randomised study, we enrolled 383 patients aged 1-7 years who had had two or more episodes of AOM in the...

A heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) protects children against invasive pneumococcal disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate immunoglobulin subclass and serotype-specific pneumococcal antibody responses to vaccination in children with a history of recurrent or severe bacterial infections. Pneumococcal IgG, IgG1, IgG2 titres were assayed by ELISA, and nine serotype concent...

PURPOSE Despite the ready availability of pneumococcal vaccine, vaccination rates are quite low in South Korea. This study was designed to assess perceptions and awareness about pneumococcal vaccines among subjects at risk and find strategies to increases vaccine coverage rates. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross sectional, community-based survey was conducted to assess perceptions about the pneum...

Streptococcus pneumoniae remains an important human pathogen. For more than 100 years, there have been vaccine efforts to prevent pneumococcal infection. The pneumococcal conjugate vaccines have significantly reduced invasive disease. However, these vaccines have changed pneumococcal ecology within the human nasopharynx. We suggest that elimination of the pneumococcus from the human nasopharynx...

We previously identified CCL20 as an early chemokine in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with pneumococcal meningitis but its functional relevance was unknown. Here we studied the role of CCL20 and its receptor CCR6 in pneumococcal meningitis. In a prospective nationwide study, CCL20 levels were significantly elevated in the CSF of patients with pneumococcal meningitis and correlated w...