Many factors affect immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae.

2003 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The factors affecting production and efficacy of vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae are reviewed in the journal Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases.

According to recent research from Spain, "Streptococcus pneumoniae is a complex human pathogen and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The genetic background of pneumococci and the chemical structure of their capsules are largely unraveled as well as the basic role of anticapsular antibodies and other opsonins interacting to enhance phagocytosis."

"Many experimental studies are improving our knowledge on the complex molecular mechanisms underlying those events," stated Julio Casal and David Tarrago at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. "Pneumococcal optimal clearance requires the cooperation of a plethora of reactions from both innate and adaptive immunity."

"The last advances in the complexity of the immune response and protection are reviewed: phagocyte-pneumococcus interactions mediated by opsonins; the role of complement, reactive C protein, and natural antibodies; details of novel immune evasion mechanisms; the complex role of the inflammatory mediators in the susceptibility to pneumococcal infections; why capsular polysaccharides do not yield an anamnestic response after primary immunization; the central question of whether T ...