Vaccination drives changes in metabolic and virulence profiles of streptococcus pneumoniae

Journal article

The bacterial pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus), is a leading cause of life-threatening illness and death worldwide. Available conjugate vaccines target only a small subset (up to 13) of >90 known capsular serotypes of S. pneumoniae and, since their introduction, increases in non-vaccine serotypes have been recorded in several countries: a phenomenon termed Vaccine Induced Serotype Replacement (VISR). Here, using a combination of mathematical modelling and whole genome analysis, we show that targeting particular serotypes through vaccination can also cause their metabolic and virulence-associated components to transfer through recombination to non-vaccine serotypes: a phenomenon we term Vaccine-Induced Metabolic Shift (VIMS). Our results provide a novel explanation for changes observed in the population structure of the pneumococcus following vaccination, and have important implications for strain-targeted vaccination in a range of infectious disease systems.

Authors: Watkins, E; Penman, B; Lourenço, J; Buckee, C; Maiden, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Journal: PLoS pathogens
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 7
• Pages: e1005034
• Publication date: 2015-07-16
• Acceptance date: 2015-06-19
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005034
• EISSN: 1553-7374
• ISSN: 1553-7366
• Language: English
• Keywords: host-pathogen interactions; SBTMR; humans; vaccination; pneumococcal vaccines; serotyping; virulence; pneumococcal infections; vaccines, conjugate; streptococcus pneumoniae