Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine leukocidin causes necrotizing pneumonia

Maria Labandeira-Rey, Florence Couzon, Sandrine Boisset, Eric L. Brown, Michele Bes, Yvonne Benito, Elena M. Barbu, Vanessa Vazquez, Magnus Höök, Jerome Etienne, François Vandenesch, M. Gabriela Bowden

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    643 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    The Staphylococcus aureus Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a pore-forming toxin secreted by strains epidemiologically associated with the current outbreak of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) and with the often-lethal necrotizing pneumonia. To investigate the role of PVL in pulmonary disease, we tested the pathogenicity of clinical isolates, isogenic PVL-negative and PVL-positive S. aureus strains, as well as purified PVL, in a mouse acute pneumonia model Here we show that PVL is sufficient to cause pneumonia and that the expression of this leukotoxin induces global changes in transcriptional levels of genes encoding secreted and cell wall-anchored staphylococcal proteins, including the lung inflammatory factor staphylococcal protein A (Spa).

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)1130-1133
    Number of pages4
    JournalScience
    Volume315
    Issue number5815
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Feb 23 2007

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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