CSP analogues may attenuate S. pneumoniae virulence, resistance

The spread of virulent, antibiotic-resistant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae may be controllable through the use of competence-stimulating peptide (CSP) analogues, US researchers believe. Using a mouse model of S. pneumoniae infection, Luchang Zhu and Gee Lau, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, showed that synthetic CSP analogues inhibited the bacteria’s ability to acquire and transfer genes conferring resistance and virulence. “These results demonstrate the applicability of generating competitive analogues of CSPs as drugs to control horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes, and to attenuate virulence during infection byS. pneumoniae,” the researchers say. CSP is a peptide pheromone secreted by S. pneumonia that binds to a receptor called ComD, which in turn activates ComE to initiate DNA uptake and integration into the bacterial genome. CSP-ComD/E also regulates the expression of virulence factors required for infection. In this study, Zhu and Lee developed multiple synthetic analogues of CSP by substituting amino acids on...