A comparison of Pattern Recognition Receptor requirement for human and horse strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Event Abstract Back to Event A comparison of Pattern Recognition Receptor requirement for human and horse strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae Hannah Williams1*, Clare Bryant1 and Gavin K. Paterson1 1 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important respiratory pathogen of humans and horses. Pneumolysin and autolysin are major virulence factors of S. pneumoniae and damage host tissue through direct effects and/or the ability to induce activation of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) including Toll-like receptors (TLRs). In the horse functional pneumolysin and autolysin are absent due to a chromosome deletion, yet respiratory disease still occurs in these animals. How then do the horse strains of S. pneumonia cause disease? The response of horse or human TLR4 to pneumolysin was characterised using an in vitro transient transfection model. Pneumolysin is an agonist at human, mouse and horse TLR4. Disruption of pneumolysin binding using TLR4 antagonists revealed that the pneumolysin interaction occurs at the same binding pocket as the TLR4 agonist lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Molecular techniques, including fluorescent single molecule imaging, will be used to further investigate the nature of the interaction. Pneumolysin interaction with the TLR4/LPS binding pocket suggests that it may activate TLR4 in a similar manner to LPS. This study will be expanded to compare how horse, human and mutant pneumolysin- and autolysin strains interaction with PRRs using in vitro macrophage cell culture studies and mouse infection models. Acknowledgements This work is funded by the Wellcome Trust through a fellowship awarded to HE Williams. GK Paterson is funded by a Medical Research Council grant. CE Bryant is a BBSRC Research Development Fellow (BB/H021930/1). Keywords: Inflammation, Toll-Like Receptors, S. pneumoniae, pneumolysin, horse Conference: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI), Milan, Italy, 22 Aug - 27 Aug, 2013. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: Innate immunity Citation: Williams H, Bryant C and Paterson GK (2013). A comparison of Pattern Recognition Receptor requirement for human and horse strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Front. Immunol. Conference Abstract: 15th International Congress of Immunology (ICI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fimmu.2013.02.00100 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 08 Mar 2013; Published Online: 22 Aug 2013. * Correspondence: Miss. Hannah Williams, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, hew28@cam.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Hannah Williams Clare Bryant Gavin K Paterson Google Hannah Williams Clare Bryant Gavin K Paterson Google Scholar Hannah Williams Clare Bryant Gavin K Paterson PubMed Hannah Williams Clare Bryant Gavin K Paterson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.