Interactions between Streptococcus pneumoniae and Moraxella catarrhalis in polymicrobial communities affect antimicrobial resistance and survival in vivo

Otitis media is an extremely common pediatric disease affecting millions of children each year worldwide. The three leading pathogens associated with this disease are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. The initial step in the development of otitis media is nasopharyngeal colonization. The next step involves ascension through the Eustachian tube to access the middle ear space. For persistance within their host, it has been hypothesized that these bacteria are able to form biofilms on the mucosal epithelial cell surface. Recent studies have shown that these bacteria not only form biofilms in the middle ears of patients and experimentally infected animals with otitis media, but these surface-attached communities may contain multiple species of bacteria. Within a polymicrobial biofilm, the bacteria are able to share certain resources, including metabolic byproducts, virulence factors, and signaling molecules. Prior studies in the lab have shown that beta-lactamase production and quorum sensing play important roles in polymicrobial biofilms with S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae, and M. catarrhalis and H. influenzae, respectively. In these studies, the importance of both beta-lactamase and interspecies quorum signal in polymicrobial biofilms with S. pneumoniae and M. catarrhalis was assessed using in vitro and in vivo models.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Perez, Antonia Courtney

• biofilm

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39331

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/39331