title: Binding and agglutination of Streptococcus pneumoniae by human surfactant protein D (SP-D) vary between strains, but SP-D fails to enhance killing by neutrophils.
abstract: Recombinant human surfactant protein D (SP-D) expressed in Escherichia coli, consisting of the head and neck regions of the native molecule, bound to all strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae that were tested, but the extent of binding varied between strains of differing capsular serotypes. The recombinant protein expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris did not bind. Full-length native SP-D aggregated pneumococci in a calcium-dependent manner that was inhibited by maltose acting as a competitive sugar. The ability of SP-D to modulate the uptake and killing of pneumococci by human neutrophils was also addressed. Neither recombinant truncated SP-D nor native full-length SP-D enhanced the killing of pneumococci by human neutrophils. Aggregation of pneumococci varied not only between strains of the same multilocus sequence type and different serotypes but also between strains of the same serotype. However, use of recombinant strains in which the serotype had been changed showed that the degree of aggregation was influenced by the capsular type. Indeed, a 19F serotype strain which was not aggregated by SP-D did exhibit aggregation when the original isogenic strain was capsule switched to capsular serotype 3. However, although our results show that SP-D is capable of aggregating most pneumococci, no correlation between the degree of aggregation and the capsule or multilocus sequence type of the pneumococcus was clearly apparent. Therefore, although the capsule serotype is not the only determinant of aggregation by SP-D, the data presented here indicate that it does have a role to play.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 9HN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rania
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jounblat
authors.forename: Aras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kadioglu
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Iannelli
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pozzi
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eggleton
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Andrew
mesh_terms: D000371:Agglutination; D001770:Blood Bactericidal Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D037663:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Protein D / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D037663:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Protein D; D011994:Recombinant Proteins