Arya Sukumar, College of Agriculture, Vellayani
Vitamins and minerals are required for the survival of all organisms, including pathogens. Metal ions are necessary for all living beings. Researchers from Australia have discovered how Streptococcus pneumonia (pneumococcus) gets its important mineral manganese from our bodies. This groundbreaking study might lead to more effective treatments against this life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant bacterium.
A brief overview of Streptococcus pneumonia and its manganese fondness
Streptococcus pneumonia (also called Pneumococcus) is a gram-positive, facultative anaerobic bacterium that comes in 100 different serotypes. Pneumococcus is one of the deadliest bacteria on the planet. It causes over one million fatalities each year and is the top infectious cause of death in children under the age of five. Although all serotypes of S. pneumoniae can cause illness, only a small number of serotypes cause the majority of pneumococcal infections. It is the leading cause of bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis, and inner ear infections. Manganese plays an important function in biological systems, providing structural stability and/or catalytic activity for metalloproteins engaged in a variety of activities, including carbon metabolism regulation, oxidative stress tolerance, and pathogen evasion of host defenses. After a decade of extensive research, researchers discovered the unique “gateway” used by Pneumococcus to steal manganese from the body.
Significance of the study
The work was presented by researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Bio21 Molecular Science & Biotechnology Institute, University of Melbourne, and Kyoto University, Japan. They identified the unique “gateway” used by pneumococcus to steal manganese from the body. Megan Maher, head of the Bio21 laboratory and associate professor at the University of Melbourne, said they have noticed that bacteria draw nutrients in a regulated way. Eventually, they found that this was done with the help of a unique channel in the bacterial membrane that opened and closed to specifically allow manganese to enter. This is a novel structure that has never been reported in such a pathogen. Previously, it was assumed that these gateways functioned similarly to Teflon-coated conduits, with everything just flowing through.
It is selectively drawing the manganese in. Any alteration of this gateway will starve the pathogen and prevent it from causing disease. Although there is a pneumococcal vaccine, its protection against circulating strains is limited, and the rate of resistance to antibiotics is increasing rapidly. It’s an intriguing therapeutic target because it’s on the surface of the bacteria and human systems don’t use this type of gateway, Professor McDevitt said. The crystal structure of the manganese transporter PsaBC from Streptococcus pneumoniae in an open-inward configuration was discovered in the study. Manganese absorption is disrupted when the extracellular gate of the transporter is mutated, while import is prevented when the coordination site is mutated. These findings give new insights to our understanding of the pathogen’s capacity to thrive as well as the potential for novel antibiotics.
Conclusion:
Pneumococci are common bacteria that live in the lungs. Australian researchers have discovered how Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) gets the important mineral manganese from our bodies, which might lead to more effective treatments for this life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant bacterium. Mutation of the extracellular gate disrupts manganese absorption, whereas mutagenesis of the coordination site prevents import. The findings of the study alter our understanding of the pathogen’s survival.
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Reference:
- Neville, S. L., Sjöhamn, J., Watts, J. A., MacDermott-Opeskin, H., Fairweather, S. J., Ganio, K., Hulyer, A.C., McGrath, A.P., Hayes, A.J., Malcolm, T.R. & Davies, M.R. (2021). The structural basis of bacterial manganese import. Science Advances, 7(32), eabg3980. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abg3980
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