Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2010 Apr;305(2):109-20. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2010.01919.x. Epub 2010 Feb 3.
Streptococcus iniae is a major pathogen of fish, causing considerable economic losses in Israel, the United States and the Far East. Containment of mortalities through vaccination was recently compromised due to the emergence of novel vaccine-escape strains that are distinguished from previous strains by their ability to produce large amounts of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) that is released to the medium. In vitro and in vivo data now indicate that the EPS is a major virulence factor, capable of triggering the proinflammatory cytokine machinery and inducing mortality of fish. Streptococcus iniae EPS might therefore be considered to be responsible for sepsis and death just as lipopolysaccharide is for Gram-negative pathogens.
无乳链球菌是鱼类的主要病原体，给以色列、美国和远东地区造成了巨大的经济损失。最近，由于新型疫苗逃逸株的出现，通过疫苗接种来控制死亡率受到了影响，这些新型疫苗逃逸株与以前的菌株不同，它们能够产生大量的胞外多糖（EPS）并释放到培养基中。目前的体外和体内数据表明，EPS 是一种主要的毒力因子，能够触发促炎细胞因子机制，并导致鱼类死亡。因此，无乳链球菌 EPS 可能被认为与革兰氏阴性病原体的脂多糖一样，是导致败血症和死亡的原因。
