Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus infects ∼30% of the human population and causes a spectrum of pathologies ranging from mild skin infections to life-threatening invasive diseases. The strict host specificity of its virulence factors has severely limited the accuracy of in vivo models for the development of vaccines and therapeutics. To resolve this, we generated a humanised zebrafish model and determined that neutrophil-specific expression of the human C5a receptor conferred susceptibility to the S. aureus toxins PVL and HlgCB, leading to reduced neutrophil numbers at the site of infection and increased infection-associated mortality. These results show that humanised zebrafish provide a valuable platform to study the contribution of human-specific S. aureus virulence factors to infection in vivo that could facilitate the development of novel therapeutic approaches and essential vaccines.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | jcs252205 |
Journal | Journal of Cell Science |
Volume | 134 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Host-pathogen interactions
- Immunology
- In vivo models
- Microbiology
- Staphylococcus aureus
- Zebrafish
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cell Biology