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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Microbial Immunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1495932

PCV13 vaccine prevents pneumococcal biofilms without affecting Staphylococcus aureus population within the polymicrobial biofilm

Provisionally accepted
Julio Sempere Julio Sempere 1,2JOSE YUSTE JOSE YUSTE 1,2Mirian Domenech Mirian Domenech 1,2,3*
  • 1 National Microbiology Center, Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 2 CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain, Spain
  • 3 Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In respiratory pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, biofilm formation is associated with the colonization of the nasopharynx and chronic respiratory infection. Previous data have shown that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) had an impact on S. pneumoniae colonization and a potential replacement by other respiratory pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. The objective of this work was to evaluate the evasion of the immune system by monospecific biofilms and by S. aureus- S. pneumoniae mixed biofilms. We performed opsonophagocytosis assays (OPA) using human HL-60 against previously disaggregated monospecific biofilms of MSSA, MRSA and S. aureus-S. pneumoniae mixed biofilms. We used pre-immune and post-immune serum from immunocompetent adult patients vaccinated with PCV13. Immune sera had a clear effect in reducing pneumococcal biofilms of serotypes 3, 14, 18C, 19F and 19A, whereas had no effect in non-PCV13 serotypes such as 8, 11A and 24F. Our study confirmed that serum from vaccinated patients with PCV13 did not have any effect in reducing S. aureus population in monospecific biofilms, regardless the methicillin resistance phenotype. Moreover, immunized sera from vaccinated patients with PCV13 did not have any effect in S. aureus population in the mixed biofilm, whereas significantly reduced the population of pneumococcal serotype 19A strain in the mixed biofilm which is of great interest because this serotype is included in PCV13, and it is associated with vaccine failures.

    Keywords: PCV13, Biofilms, OPA, S. aureus, MRSA, S. pneumoniae Inglés (Estados Unidos) Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva Con formato: Fuente: Cursiva

    Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sempere, YUSTE and Domenech. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mirian Domenech, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.