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

574 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
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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