OBJECTIVE: To establish and modify quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based serotyping assays to distinguish 97 pneumococcal serotypes. METHODS: A database of capsular polysaccharide ( cps) loci sequences was generated, covering 97 pneumococcal serotypes. Bioinformatics analyses were performed to identify the cps loci structure and target genes related to different pneumococcal serotypes with specific SNPs. A total of 27 novel qPCR serotyping assay primers and probes were established based on qPCR, while 27 recombinant plasmids containing serotype-specific DNA sequence fragments were constructed as reference target sequences to examine the specificity and sensitivity of the qPCR assay. A panel of pneumococcal reference strains was employed to evaluate the capability of pneumococcal serotyping. RESULTS: A total of 97 pneumococcal serotyping assays based on qPCR were established and modified, which included 64 serotypes previously reported as well as an additional 33 serotypes. Twenty-seven novel qPCR serotyping target sequences were implemented in the pneumococcal qPCR serotyping system. A total of 97 pneumococcal serotypes, which included 52 individual serotypes and 45 serotypes belonging to 20 serogroups, could not be identified as individual serotypes. The sensitivity of qPCR assays based on 27 target sequences was 1-100 copies/µL. The specificity of the qPCR assays was 100%, which were tested by a panel of 90 serotypes of the pneumococcal reference strains. CONCLUSION A total of 27 novel qPCR assays were established and modified to analyze 97 pneumococcal serotypes.
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Serotyping ; Streptococcus pneumoniae/genetics* ; Serogroup

Forty-one strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were isolated at Seoul National University Children's Hospital from 1991 to 1997. Isolates were divided into six groups based on MICs of three quinolones, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and norfloxacin. Sequencing showed that the isolates which were intermediately resistant to three quinolones or resistant to at least one kind of quinolone had one missense mutation, Lys137-->Asn(AAG-->AAT) substitution in the ParC subunit of topoisomerase IV without additional mutation in QRDR of the GyrA subunit of DNA gyrase. In conclusion, the ParC subunit of DNA topoisomerase IV is the primary target site for fluoroquinolone in S. pneumoniae and Lys137-->Asn substitution renders the quinolone resistance in S. pneumoniae.
DNA Topoisomerase (ATP-Hydrolysing)/genetics* ; Drug Resistance, Microbial/genetics* ; Human ; Isoenzymes/genetics* ; Mutation/genetics* ; Quinolones* ; Streptococcus pneumoniae/genetics

More than 100 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumonia have been identified, which has been one bottleneck problem for pneumococcal disease diagnosis, surveillance, development of pneumococcal vaccine and effectiveness evaluation of pneumococcal vaccines. Three categories of approaches for pneumococcal serotyping will be discussed including phenotyping based on anti-serum, biochemical typing based on pneumococcal capsular characteristics and genotyping based on pneumococcal capsular locus sequences. We reviewed the development and applications of different serotyping of pneumococcus to provide guidance for pneumococcal disease prevention and control.
Humans ; Serotyping/methods* ; Pneumococcal Infections/prevention & control* ; Pneumococcal Vaccines ; Streptococcus pneumoniae/genetics* ; Pneumonia

OBJECTIVETo prepare pneumolysin as a new protein carrier of vaccine against otitis media with genetic engineering technology and establish the base of the study on pneumococcal conjugative vaccines.

METHODSGenomic DNA was isolated from streptococcus pneumoniae. A pair of primers which included two restriction sites was designed based on the published pneumolysin gene sequence. The pneumolysin gene was amplified from pneumococcal DNA with PCR technology. The restriction enzyme digested fragment was linked into the cloning vector PET-28a and the recombinant plasmid DNA containing pneumolysin was then transfected into host cell E. coli JM109 (DE3).

RESULTSDNA fragments were subcloned to construct the complete pneumolysin gene by a conventional coning and PCR. The inserted pneumolysin gene sequence was confirmed by DNA sequencing and the pneumolysin protein was successfully expressed. The relative molecular mass of the expressed product was 52 000. The expressed product amounted to 8% of the total host cell protein.

CONCLUSIONSThe pneumolysin gene was successfully cloned into host cell using genetic engineering technology. The recombinant pneumolysin was expressed and purified for preparation. This work laid a foundation of the preparation of pneumococcal conjugative vaccines.

Bacterial Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Cloning, Molecular ; Genetic Engineering ; Genetic Vectors ; Plasmids ; Pneumococcal Vaccines ; genetics ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; genetics ; Streptolysins ; biosynthesis ; genetics

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A mouse has a great potential to be used in studying genetics and inflammatory process of the rhinosinusitis. The aim of this study was to observe effects of experimentally induced chronic rhinosinusitis on histopathology of the sinonasal mucosa in a mouse and to develop a chronic form of rhinosinusitis. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Thirty five, six-week old male C57BL/6 mice were used as follows: 7 normal controls without intervention, 7 Sham operated controls, 7 animals with ostial obstruction alone using Merocel, 7 animals implanted with Merocel plus 106 colony forming unit (CFU)/mL of Streptococcus pneumoniae and 7 animals implanted with Merocel plus 10(8) CFU/mL of S. pneumoniae. Six weeks after intervention, the animals were sacrificed and serially sectioned at 1 mm intervals and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin. RESULTS: Increased epithelial thickness, goblet cell hyperplasia, epithelial disarray and inflammatory infiltration were observed in the experimental sinuses packed with Merocel alone or Merocel with bacterial inoculation, especially at the nasal septal area. However, there were no significant differences between the Merocel only inserted group and Merocel and bacteria inoculated group. CONCLUSION: Maxillary sinus ostial obstruction or ostial obstruction with S. pneumoniae inoculation induced chronic rhinosinusitis in C57BL/6 mice as indicated by the histologic change. This study could be used as a model of chronic rhinosinusitis for further study.
Animals ; Bacteria ; Eosine Yellowish-(YS) ; Genetics ; Goblet Cells ; Hematoxylin ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Male ; Maxillary Sinus ; Mice* ; Mucous Membrane ; Pneumonia ; Septum of Brain ; Sinusitis ; Stem Cells ; Streptococcus pneumoniae* ; Streptococcus*

We established a rapid detection method of New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase Gene (NDM-1) based on Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP). With the application of LAMP, we designed four sets of LAMP premiers, using NDM-1 gene as the target sequence, and selected the set of optimal primers. Meanwhile, we established optimal reaction systems and conditions to carry out the sensitivity and specificity experiments. The experiment results showed that the whole detection process took only one hour and could be observed visually. In the experiment of sensitivity, NDM-1 gene had a detection limit of 6 copies in each reaction. In the experiment of specificity, we detected NDM-1 gene in 4 pathogen strains (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae), and the total DNA from intestinal microbes and the total DNA from soil microbes. We had not detected the amplification reactions. The detection method established could rapidly detect NDM-1 gene and visualize the experiment result. The method is easy to operate and has high sensitivity and specificity and thus has great application value in basic research laboratories, emergent detection and spot detection.
Bacteria ; enzymology ; genetics ; Bacteriological Techniques ; methods ; DNA, Bacterial ; genetics ; Escherichia coli ; enzymology ; genetics ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; enzymology ; genetics ; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques ; methods ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Staphylococcus aureus ; enzymology ; genetics ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; enzymology ; genetics ; beta-Lactamases ; genetics

The aim of the present study was to obtain the crystal of transcription factor LytR of streptococcus pneumoniae for X-ray crystal structure and function analysis. The LytR gene of D39 strains from Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pn) was cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET32a(+), then overexpression was obtained in the E. coli BL21 (DE3) through transformation of the recombinant plasmid that had been verified by colony PCR and sequencing. Soluble fusion protein with His-tag highly expressed by the induction of 0.5 mmol/L IPTG and was purified by a three step procedure, the purity of the purified LytR recombinant protein was over 90%. Preliminary screening of crystallization conditions was performed using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusing method with Hampton Crystal screen and PEG screen kits. The protein crystals X-ray diffraction data were collected from a single crystal and more stick crystals whose X-ray diffraction reached 4.0 A were obtained. These works laid the foundation for further research on the 3D structure of putative transcription factor LytR and its biological aspects.
Bacterial Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; isolation & purification ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; genetics ; metabolism ; Transcription Factors ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; isolation & purification

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the potential relationship between age and Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccination coverage in kindergarten children, and to provide a basis for guiding vaccination and developing new protein vaccines. METHODS: The stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 1 830 healthy children from six kindergartens in Shunde District, Foshan City, China, and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected for the isolation and identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The logistic regression model based on restricted cubic spline was used to analyze the dose-response relationship between age and Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccination coverage. RESULTS: The rate of nasal Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage was 22.46% (411/1 830) among the kindergarten children, with the predominant serotypes of 6B, 19F, 15A, 23A, 34, and 23F. The coverage rates of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) were 53.0% and 57.9%, respectively, and there was a significant non-linear dose-response relationship between age and the coverage rates of PCV10 and PCV13 (P<0.05), with a higher coverage rate of PCV10 (88.0%) and PCV13 (91.1%) in the children aged 2 years. There was a significant non-linear dose-response relationship between age and the coverage rates of pilus islet 1 (PI-1) and pilus islet 2 (PI-2) (P<0.05), with a lower vaccination coverage rate for PI-1 (37.7%) and PI-2 (16.1%). The coverage rates of PI-1 (13.0%-58.5%) and PI-2 (6.0%-29.4%) were lower in all age groups. The virulence genes lytA (99.5%) and ply (99.0%) associated with candidate protein vaccines showed higher vaccination coverage rates. CONCLUSIONS There is a significant non-linear dose-response relationship between the age of kindergarten children and the coverage rates of PCV10 and PCV13 serotypes, and kindergarten children aged 2 years have a relatively high coverage rate of PCV. The high prevalence of the virulence genes lytA and ply shows that they are expected to become candidate virulence factors for the development of a new generation of recombinant protein vaccines.
Humans ; Child ; Infant ; Streptococcus pneumoniae/genetics* ; Pneumococcal Infections/epidemiology* ; Vaccination Coverage ; Pneumococcal Vaccines ; Serogroup ; Vaccination ; Nasopharynx ; Carrier State/epidemiology*

To identify in vivo-induced gene in Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pn) through a novel in vivo expression technology (IVET), a large promoter-trap library using galU and lacZ as the reporters was constructed. Based on the suicide vector pEVP3, a new vector pEVP3-galU was constructed with promoterless galU gene as an in vivo reporter. Firstly, promoterless galU gene was directly cloned into pEVP3 fusing with promoterless lacZ gene (an in vitro reporter). Then the random pieces of S. pn chromosomal DNA (200-500 bp), obtained by partial Sau3AI restriction digestion, were subcloned into the Bgl II site of pEVP3-galU. Upon introduction of the ligated plasmid library into E. coli DH5alpha by transformation, about 70,000 recombinants were recovered. Considering insert DNA orientation and insert size, this represents 5 coverage of the 2.2 Mb S. pn genome; 90% of these clones had 250- to 500-bp inserts. Thus, the library retained maximal complexity. Transformation by this plasmid library yield 450,000 S. pn transformants. The library was used to infect animals in intraperitoneal model. Those strains survived in vivo while exhibiting a white colony phenotype on TSA agar containing X-gal would indicate that the DNA fragment upstream of the galU reporter contained an in vivo-induced promoter. The promoter-trap library is suitable for screening in vivo-induced gene of S. pn.
Animals ; Cloning, Molecular ; Female ; Genes, Bacterial ; genetics ; Genes, Reporter ; genetics ; Genomic Library ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; genetics

The purpose of this study was to develop pneumococcal typing by multiplex PCR and compare it with conventional serotyping by quellung reaction. Pneumococcal strains used in this study included 77 isolates from clinical specimens collected from children at Seoul National University Children's Hospital from 2006 to 2010. These strains were selected as they represented 26 different serotypes previously determined by quellung reaction. Molecular type was determined by 8 sequential multiplex PCR assays. Bacterial DNA extracted from cultured colonies was used as a template for PCR, and primers used in this study were based on cps operon sequences. Types 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D were assigned based on the presence of wciNbeta and/or wciP genes in 2 simplex PCRs and sequencing. All 77 isolates were successfully typed by multiplex PCR assays. Determined types were as follows: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 7C, 7F, 9V, 10A, 11A, 12F, 13, 14, 15A, 15B/15C, 19A, 19F, 20, 22F, 23A, 23F, 34, 35B, and 37. The results according to the PCR assays were in complete concordance with those determined by conventional quellung reaction. The multiplex PCR assay is highly reliable and potentially reduces reliance upon conventional serotyping.
Child ; DNA Primers/chemistry/metabolism ; DNA, Bacterial/chemistry/genetics ; Humans ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Pneumococcal Infections/microbiology ; Serotyping ; Streptococcus pneumoniae/*classification/genetics/isolation & purification