Grant: Project Grant

Streptococcus pneumonia (the pneumococcus) is a bacterium that often lives in the nose and throats of humans. This relationship is most often benign but this microorganism is also an accomplished disease-causing germ that can cause mild ailments, such as earaches, to lethal illnesses like pneumonia, blood poisoning, and infections of the brain and central nervous system. There are effective vaccines and medicines (antibiotics) to treat infections caused by the pneumococcus; however, this germ is constantly adapting to avoid both of these medical interventions. The importance of S. pneumoniae as a disease-causing germ dictates intense research efforts be directed to understand how it causes infections with the aim of using this knowledge to guide new treatment strategies. The human body has large amounts of carbohydrates with complex structures, termed glycans, displayed on the surface of cells and coating the surfaces of tissues (e.g. mucous). Remarkably, the pneumococcus relies on its ability to attack these glycans to colonize humans and ultimately cause disease. Our research is aimed at determining how this happens. What glycans does the germ attack? What pneumococcal factors do this? What is the outcome of destroying a host sugar? Armed with the fundamental insight from examining these questions we plan to develop and study molecules that can be used to prevent S. pneumoniae from attacking host glycans; such molecules are proving useful as research tools but may also provide a platform for developing new treatments to combat S. pneumoniae infections.