Investigation for a control method of neutrophil immunity

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26293390
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Morphological basic dentistry
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: TERAO Yutaka 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 教授 (50397717)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小田 真隆 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 准教授 (00412403) ; 土門 久哲 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 助教 (00594350)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 好中球

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Streptococcus penumoniae is a major pathogen that causes elderly pneumonia. S. pneunoniae expresses several toxins and one of them possesses cytolytic activity. However, the pneumolysin is located in the cytosol of the pneumococcus and this bacteria doesn’t have any pomp system to release the pneumolysin. The main contribution of this present study is the elucidation of the mechanism by which S. pneumoniae recruits host enzymes to promote the progression of pneumococcal infection. We believe that this contribution is theoretically and practically relevant because we demonstrate that the pneumococcal pore-forming toxin pneumolysin selectively degrades neutrophils to promote the release of neutrophil elastase, which subsequently targets alveolar epithelial cells and macrophages, but exhibits no cytotoxicity toward S. pneumoniae.

Free Research Field

口腔細菌学