Adhesins multiple

The presence of multiple FnBPs could possibly explain how S. pyogenes is able to colonize different host tissue and confer various tissue tropisms. The identification of fhe Sfbl adhesin has contributed to the recent development of vaccines composed of Sfbl-derived peptides conjugated to either the diphtheria toxoid or used with the Lipid Core Peptide (TCP) delivery system. These vaccines have been shovm to confer protective immunity to BALC/c mice when challenged intranasally with lethal doses of S. pyogenes (Olive et ah, 2007 Schulze et ah, 2006). 

The presence of multiple fimbriae on the cell surface allows bacteria to adhere to target surfaces by simultaneously using multiple and often weak, non-covalent protein-carbohydrate interactions between the adhesin and its receptor. Such... 

The field is introduced in the first chapter, which points out the complexity of the adhesion process involving multiple adhesins on a single microbe and their respective target receptors on host cells, and discusses the possibility of controlling bacterial infections via preventing the adhesion or invasion stages of microbial pathogenesis. The latter issue touches on a vision of an anti-adhesive therapy, which in our opinion receives some validation on the basis of the contributions collected herein. 

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