Virulence factors of Streptococcus pyogenes strains from women in peri-labor with invasive infections

21Citations
Citations of this article
113Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Invasive group A streptococcal (GAS) infections constitute an important epidemiological problem. Many cases occur in women during the postnatal period. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of the genes responsible for production of iron-chelating protein (perR) and superantigens (speA, speB, speC, speF, speG, speH, speI, speJ, speK, speL, speM, smeZ, and ssa) in S. pyogenes strains isolated from invasive infections in women after delivery. Furthermore, this study sought to verify whether S. pyogenes strains show special phenotypic and genotypic (sla, spy1325) characteristics that may play a decisive role in adherence to the genital tract epithelium. Moreover, the emm-types and antibiotic susceptibility were determined. We tested 30 invasive S. pyogenes strains isolated from postpartum invasive infection and 37 GAS control strains isolated from the genital tracts of asymptomatic multiparous women. The majority of the tested strains were shown to express two types of emm genes (1 and 28), though emm −12, −28, −75 and −89 were uniquely expressed in the group of strains isolated from invasive infections. A significantly higher prevalence of perR in the strains from puerperal fever was shown. Significant differences were also found between the two groups with respect to the incidence of the genes related to adherence; GAS strains originating from women with sepsis/puerperal fever showed presence of these genes less frequently than those of the control group. Although differences in frequencies of the gene coding for various superantigens were noted between the compared groups of GAS strains, they were not significant.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Golińska, E., van der Linden, M., Więcek, G., Mikołajczyk, D., Machul, A., Samet, A., … Strus, M. (2016). Virulence factors of Streptococcus pyogenes strains from women in peri-labor with invasive infections. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 35(5), 747–754. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-016-2593-0

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free