Summary
Gram-positive cocci are important human pathogens. Streptococci and staphylococci
in particular are a major threat to human health,since they cause a variety of serious
invasive infections. Their invasion into normally sterile sites of the host depends
on elaborated bacterial mechanisms that involve adhesion to the host tissue, its degradation,
internalisation by host cells, and passage through epithelia and endothelia. Interactions
of bacterial surface proteins with proteins of the host’s extracellular matrix as
well as with cell surface receptors are crucial factors in these processes, and some
of the key mechanisms are similar in many pathogenic Gram-positive cocci.Therapies
that interfere with these mechanisms may become efficient alternatives to today’s
antibiotic treatments.
Keywords
Streptococcus
-
Staphylococcus
- pathogenesis - invasion - internalisation