Survival of Streptococcus anginosus in blood is linked to hydrogen peroxide production
Streptococcus anginosus is an opportunistic pathogen causing bacteremia, respiratory tract infections, abscesses, odontogenic infections and has recently been associated with gastric cancer. While numerous genes encoding putative virulence factors have been detected in whole genome sequences, a detailed molecular characterization is missing for most of them. To address putative virulence…
Streptococcus anginosus is a pathogen known to cause various infections, including bacteremia and respiratory tract infections. Research has been done to understand the virulence factors of this opportunistic pathogen, but many genes responsible for these factors remain poorly characterized. To explore this further, scientists investigated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production by S. anginosus and its impact on survival in human blood.
In comparison to Streptococcus pneumoniae, S. anginosus possesses two genetic variants of the spxB gene, with one showing a high degree of similarity to the spxB gene found in S. pneumoniae. Strains carrying the S. pneumoniae variant exhibit significantly higher H2O2 production, ranging from 10 to 20 millimolar, compared to those carrying the unique S. anginosus variant.
Written by urgent.news from bioRxiv's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
