Researchers use bacterial strains to measure host gene expression in mouse model
The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae colonizes the nasopharynx and can cause pneumonia. Then, it can spread from the lungs to the bloodstream and cause organ damage.
This opportunistic pathogen commonly infects young children, those who are immunocompromised and the elderly. In 2015, S. pneumoniae infections worldwide killed an estimated 192,000 to 366,000 children under age 5.
To understand how this pathogen adapts to different locations in the body, and also how the host responds to the invading microbe, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine measured bacterial and host gene expression at five different sites in a mouse model the nasopharynx, lungs, blood, heart and kidneys using three genetically different strains of S. pneumoniae.
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