A novel mouse model to study cigarette smoke and invasive pneumococcal disease
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of invasive bacterial infections. Although cigarette smoke is a risk factor known to be involved in the development of invasive pneumococcal disease, the underlying mechanism remains to be determined, primarily due to the lack of a clinically relevant animal model [...]
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of invasive bacterial infections. Although cigarette smoke is a risk factor known to be involved in the development of invasive pneumococcal disease, the underlying mechanism remains to be determined, primarily due to the lack of a clinically relevant animal model. A study published by PhD student Pamela Shen from Dr. Martin Stampfli’s lab, reported a novel model of nasal pneumococcal colonization in cigarette smoke-exposed mice, which was used to demonstrate, for the first time, that cigarette smoke predisposes mice to invasive pneumococcal infection and mortality. Mechanistically, the study showed that cigarette smoke impaired the response to S. pneumoniae by suppressing the expression of nasal inflammatory mediators, such as neutrophil-recruiting chemokines. Furthermore, they reported that the effects of cigarette smoke might be reversible, as smoking cessation during nasal colonization fully rescued mice from disease. Considering the fact that over 1 billion individuals smoke worldwide, this suggests that a considerable proportion of the global population is at increased risk, and the findings from this study may help guide future efforts to reduce the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease. Read More
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