title: Prevalence of M75Streptococcus pyogenesStrains HarboringslaAGene in Patients Affected by Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome in Central Italy.
abstract: Recently we reported an association between pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and Group Astreptococcus(GAS) sub-acute chronic tonsil colonization. We showed that GAS may contribute to tonsil hyperplasia via a streptolysin O (SLO)-dependent cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) production, which can trigger T and B cell proliferation. In the present study, we characterized the GAS strains isolated from pediatric OSAS patients in comparison with a panel of age and sex matched GAS strains unrelated to OSAS, but isolated in the same area and during the same period ranging from 2009 to 2013. We found thatslaAgene, previously reported to be associated to CysLTs production pathway, was significantly associated to GAS OSAS strains. Moreover, the most numerous group (32%) of the GAS OSAS strains belonged to M75 type, and 6 out of 7 of these strains harbored theslaAgene. Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) experiments demonstrated that the clone emm75/ST49/smeZ, slaAwas associated to OSAS cases. In conclusion, we found an association betweenslaAgene and the GAS OSAS strains, and we showed that the clone emm75/ST49 harboring genessmeZandslaAwas exclusively isolated from patients affected by OSAS, thus suggesting that this genotype might be associated to the pathogenesis of OSAS, although further studies are needed to elucidate the possible role ofSlaAin tonsil hypertrophy development.
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines S.r.l.Siena, Italy; Host-Microbiota Interaction Team, Wellcome Trust Sanger InstituteCambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Viciani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of SienaSiena, Italy; Hospital Department of Specialized and Internal Medicine, University Division of Infectious DiseasesSiena, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Montagnani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacinta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tordini
authors.affiliation: Clinica Otorinolaringoiatrica, Policlinico Universitario "Le Scotte" Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Clinica Otorinolaringoiatrica, Policlinico Universitario "Le Scotte" Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salerni
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of SienaSiena, Italy; Hospital Department of Specialized and Internal Medicine, University Division of Infectious DiseasesSiena, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines S.r.l. Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.affiliation: GSK Vaccines S.r.l. Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea G O
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Manetti
keywords: Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST); Streptococcus pyogenes; molecular epidemiology; obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS); slaA gene