Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years, the idea of a highly immunogenic protein-based vaccine to combat Streptococcus pneumoniae and its severe invasive infectious diseases has gained considerable interest. However, the target proteins to be included in a vaccine formulation have to accomplish several genetic and immunological characteristics, (such as conservation, distribution, immunogenicity and protective effect), in order to ensure its suitability and effectiveness. This study aimed to get comprehensive insights into the genomic organization, population distribution and genetic conservation of all pneumococcal surface-exposed proteins, genetic regulators and other virulence factors, whose important function and role in pathogenesis has been demonstrated or hypothesized.ResultsAfter retrieving the complete set of DNA and protein sequences reported in the databases GenBank, KEGG, VFDB, P2CS and Uniprot for pneumococcal strains whose genomes have been fully sequenced and annotated, a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis and systematic comparison has been performed for each virulence factor, stand-alone regulator and two-component regulatory system (TCS) encoded in the pan-genome of S. pneumoniae. A total of 25 S. pneumoniae strains, representing different pneumococcal phylogenetic lineages and serotypes, were considered. A set of 92 different genes and proteins were identified, classified and studied to construct a pan-genomic variability map (variome) for S. pneumoniae. Both, pneumococcal virulence factors and regulatory genes, were well-distributed in the pneumococcal genome and exhibited a conserved feature of genome organization, where replication and transcription are co-oriented. The analysis of the population distribution for each gene and protein showed that 49 of them are part of the core genome in pneumococci, while 43 belong to the accessory-genome. Estimating the genetic variability revealed that pneumolysin, enolase and Usp45 (SP_2216 in S. p. TIGR4) are the pneumococcal virulence factors with the highest conservation, while TCS08, TCS05, and TCS02 represent the most conserved pneumococcal genetic regulators.ConclusionsThe results identified well-distributed and highly conserved pneumococcal virulence factors as well as regulators, representing promising candidates for a new generation of serotype-independent protein-based vaccine(s) to combat pneumococcal infections.
Highlights
In recent years, the idea of a highly immunogenic protein-based vaccine to combat Streptococcus pneumoniae and its severe invasive infectious diseases has gained considerable interest
This probably makes them ideal pharmacological targets to treat the pneumococcus and its diseases. This might be an alternative to the immunization with the conjugated serotypes, or represent a strategy to combine immunogenic and highly conserved proteins with capsular polysaccharides to generate a serotype-independent immune response. The construction of this “low-scale” Pan-genomic variability map (Variome) model for the virulence factors and regulators of Streptococcus pneumoniae was achieved from 25 pneumococcal strains with fully sequenced and annotated genomes
According to the Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis performed on the National center for biotechnology information (NCBI) website, this selected set of pneumococcal genomes ensured an optimal representation of the pneumococcal population (8290 strains) reported in the NCBI database up to date
Summary
The idea of a highly immunogenic protein-based vaccine to combat Streptococcus pneumoniae and its severe invasive infectious diseases has gained considerable interest. Streptococcus pneumoniae, known as the pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, α-hemolytic and facultative aerobic bacterium. This microorganism is normally found as a harmless commensal in the upper respiratory tract of humans. S. pneumoniae is the main etiologic agent of community-acquired pneumonia This is not its only clinical manifestation, because other kind of diseases such as otitis media, sinusitis, septicemia and meningitis are caused by this pathogen and associated with high mortality rates [2]. The surface of the pneumococcus is decorated by various proteins, which have been already associated with its high pathogenic potential. Their interaction level with the host cellular receptors has been proved, exhibiting crucial pathogenic functions such as adhesion, colonization, breaching tissue barriers and immune evasion [6]
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