Metabolic rewiring at the pyruvate node contributes to severe pneumonia and attenuation of T cell responses in serotype 3 Streptococcus pneumoniae infection

Description

Kenichi Takeshita, Ana G Jop Vidal, and Jorge E Vidal study a metabolic switch in a pneumonia bacterium that still causes severe disease despite vaccination, in a 2026 paper. Serotype 3 Streptococcus pneumoniae resists immune clearance well. The team focused on two enzymes at the pyruvate crossroads of the cell's energy system.

The wild strain grew poorly at airway oxygen levels, a burden lifted when one enzyme gene, spxB, was removed. In mice, the normal strain caused severe lung infection with pus, bleeding, and tissue swelling. The mutant strain spread more wildly and inflamed more, yet lacked a striking feature of the normal infection: bubble-like host membrane pouches stuffed with bacteria on airway surfaces. Gene activity data tied the normal strain to dampened T cell activation. The authors read the pouches as a new immune evasion trick.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13576303