<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p><italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae</italic> (pneumococcus) belongs to the Gram-positive cocci. This bacterium typically colonizes the nasopharyngeal region of healthy individuals. It has a distinct polysaccharide capsule – a virulence factor allowing the bacteria to elude the immune defense mechanisms. Consequently, it might trigger aggressive conditions like septicemia and meningitis in immunocompromised or older individuals. Moreover, children below five years of age are at risk of morbidity and mortality. Studies have found 101 <italic>S. pneumoniae</italic> capsular serotypes, of which several correlate with clinical and carriage isolates with distinct disease aggressiveness. Introducing pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) targets the most common disease-associated serotypes.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, vaccine selection pressure leads to replacing the formerly dominant vaccine serotypes (VTs) by non-vaccine types (NVTs). Therefore, serotyping must be conducted for epidemiological surveillance and vaccine assessment. Serotyping can be performed using numerous techniques, either by the conventional antisera-based (Quellung and latex agglutination) or molecular-based approaches (sequetyping, multiplex PCR, real-time PCR, and PCR-RFLP). A cost-effective and practical approach must be used to enhance serotyping accuracy to monitor the prevalence of VTs and NVTs. Therefore, dependable pneumococcal serotyping techniques are essential to precisely monitor virulent lineages, NVT emergence, and genetic associations of isolates. This review discusses the principles, associated benefits, and drawbacks of the respective available conventional and molecular approaches, and potentially the whole genome sequencing (WGS) to be directed for future exploration.</p>
</abstract>

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) belongs to the Gram-positive cocci. This bacterium typically colonizes the nasopharyngeal region of healthy individuals. It has a distinct polysaccharide capsule – a virulence factor allowing the bacteria to elude the immune defense mechanisms. Consequently, it might trigger aggressive conditions like septicemia and meningitis in immunocompromised or older individuals. Moreover, children below five years of age are at risk of morbidity and mortality. Studies have found 101 S. pneumoniae capsular serotypes, of which several correlate with clinical and carriage isolates with distinct disease aggressiveness. Introducing pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) targets the most common disease-associated serotypes.
Nevertheless, vaccine selection pressure leads to replacing the formerly dominant vaccine serotypes (VTs) by non-vaccine types (NVTs). Therefore, serotyping must be conducted for epidemiological surveillance and vaccine assessment. Serotyping can be performed using numerous techniques, either by the conventional antisera-based (Quellung and latex agglutination) or molecular-based approaches (sequetyping, multiplex PCR, real-time PCR, and PCR-RFLP). A cost-effective and practical approach must be used to enhance serotyping accuracy to monitor the prevalence of VTs and NVTs. Therefore, dependable pneumococcal serotyping techniques are essential to precisely monitor virulent lineages, NVT emergence, and genetic associations of isolates. This review discusses the principles, associated benefits, and drawbacks of the respective available conventional and molecular approaches, and potentially the whole genome sequencing (WGS) to be directed for future exploration.

The Molecular Approaches and Challenges of <italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae</italic> Serotyping for Epidemiological Surveillance in the Vaccine Era

Polish Journal of Microbiology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Molecular Approaches and Challenges of  Serotyping for Epidemiological Surveillance in the Vaccine Era

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) belongs to the Gram-positive cocci. This bacterium typically colonizes the nasopharyngeal region of healthy...

The Molecular Approaches and Challenges of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotyping for Epidemiological Surveillance in the Vaccine Era

Article Category: MINIREVIEW

Published Online: Jun 14, 2023

Page range: 103 - 115

Received: Jan 27, 2023

Accepted: May 09, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33073/pjm-2023-023

Keywords
serotyping, PCR, sequetyping, PCR-RFLP, WGS

© 2023 Nurul Asyikin Abdul Rahman et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Molecular Approaches and Challenges of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotyping for Epidemiological Surveillance in the Vaccine Era

Article Category: MINIREVIEW

Published Online: Jun 14, 2023

Page range: 103 - 115

Received: Jan 27, 2023

Accepted: May 09, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33073/pjm-2023-023

Keywordsserotyping, PCR, sequetyping, PCR-RFLP, WGS

© 2023 Nurul Asyikin Abdul Rahman et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
serotyping, PCR, sequetyping, PCR-RFLP, WGS