Domenech Mirian, García Ernesto
Departamento de Microbiología Molecular y Biología de las Infecciones, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasMadrid, Spain.
Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades RespiratoriasMadrid, Spain.
Front Microbiol. 2017 Jul 18;8:1333. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01333. eCollection 2017.
is a common human pathogen and a major causal agent of life-threatening infections that can either be respiratory or non-respiratory. It is well known that the (edible snail) agglutinin (HPA) lectin shows specificity for terminal αGalNAc residues present, among other locations, in the Forssman pentasaccharide (αGalNAc1→3βGalNAc1→3αGal1→4βGal1→4βGlc). Based on experiments involving choline-independent mutants and different growth conditions, we propose here that HPA recognizes the αGalNAc terminal residues of the cell wall teichoic and lipoteichoic acids of . In addition, experimental evidence showing that pneumococci can be specifically labeled with HPA when growing as planktonic cultures as well as in mixed biofilms of and has been obtained. It should be underlined that pneumococci were HPA-labeled despite of the presence of a capsule. Although some non-pneumococcal species also bind the agglutinin, HPA-binding combined with fluorescence microscopy constitutes a suitable tool for identifying and, if used in conjunction with Gram staining and/or other suitable technique like antigen detection, it may potentially facilitate a fast and accurate diagnosis of pneumococcal infections.
是一种常见的人类病原体，是危及生命的感染的主要致病因子，这些感染可以是呼吸道感染或非呼吸道感染。众所周知，（食用蜗牛）凝集素（HPA）凝集素对福斯曼五糖（αGalNAc1→3βGalNAc1→3αGal1→4βGal1→4βGlc）等位置存在的末端αGalNAc残基具有特异性。基于涉及胆碱非依赖性突变体和不同生长条件的实验，我们在此提出HPA识别肺炎链球菌细胞壁磷壁酸和脂磷壁酸的αGalNAc末端残基。此外，已经获得实验证据表明，肺炎链球菌在浮游培养以及与其他细菌的混合生物膜中生长时可以被HPA特异性标记。应该强调的是，尽管存在荚膜，肺炎链球菌仍被HPA标记。虽然一些非肺炎链球菌物种也结合凝集素，但HPA结合与荧光显微镜检查相结合构成了一种识别肺炎链球菌的合适工具，如果与革兰氏染色和/或其他合适的技术如抗原检测结合使用，它可能有助于快速准确地诊断肺炎链球菌感染。
