title: Host-pathogen interactions in streptococcal immune sequelae.
abstract: Otherwise uncomplicated infections with Streptococcus pyogenes can cause two insidious immune sequelae known as post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (PSGN) and acute rheumatic fever (ARF). These diseases follow with a latency of a few weeks or months after primary infection and are responsible for high mortality and morbidity. PSGN has also been linked to infections with group C streptococci of the species S. equi ssp. zooepidemicus (SESZ). Moreover, there are some indications that infection with group C and G streptococci (GCGS) of the subspecies Streptococcus dysgalactiae ssp. equisimilis (SDSE) leads to ARF. Despite decades of research, the picture of the molecular pathogenesis of streptococcal immune sequelae resembles a jigsaw puzzle. Herein we try to put some of the puzzle bits together that have been collected till date.
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstraße 7, D-38124 Braunschweig, Germany. Patric.Nitsche@helmholtz-hzi.de
authors.forename: D Patric
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Nitsche-Schmitz
authors.forename: Gursharan S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Chhatwal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000209:etiology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D012213:Rheumatic Fever / Q000209:etiology; D012214:Rheumatic Heart Disease / Q000209:etiology; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; C014689:streptococcal M protein