Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: The appearance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as an endemic microbe, first in hospital and health care settings and more recently in the community, has led to a disastrous situation in which use of the available antibiotic armamentarium is increasingly ineffective and spawns further antibiotic resistance.This vicious cycle highlights the pressing need for an S. aureus vaccine.However, to date, clinical trials with S. aureus vaccines have not demonstrated sustained efficacy.In this issue of the JCI, Skurnik and colleagues report that specific antibodies to two different S. aureus surface polysaccharides, which independently promote effector cell killing of S. aureus in vitro and protection against S. aureus in animal models, bind to and abrogate the activity of one another when they are combined.This fascinating finding suggests a new paradigm to explain the failure of antibody immunity to S. aureus.The host-microbe relationship and awakening of slumbering microbes Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of bloodstream, lower respiratory tract, and skin and soft tissue infections in many developed countries, including the United States.The prevalence of S. aureusand, more recently, methicillin-resistant S. aureus-associated (MRSA-associated) disease, has increased dramatically over the past three decades.The appearance of MRSA as an endemic microbe, first in hospital and health care settings, and more recently in the community, has led to a disastrous situation in which use of the available antibiotic armamentarium is increasingly ineffective and spawns further antibiotic resistance.This vicious cycle highlights the pressing need for an S. aureus vaccine.S. aureus is found in the nasal cavity of 20%-30% of normal, asymptomatic individuals.Colonization with S. aureus is a critically important state, because it is a major risk factor for the development of S. aureus disease (1).Colonization can be transient, recurrent, or persistent, and when disease occurs, it represents a transition from the asymptomatic state of colonization.Hence, the development of disease with S. aureus is the outcome
DOI: 10.1172/jci44312
Author: Liise-anne Pirofski
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1963508265