Metal ion Toxicity and Oxidative Stress in Streptococcus Pneumoniae

Abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the world's foremost bacterial pathogens. Primarily residing asymptomatically in the human nasopharynx, it also has the capacity to cause invasive disease, resulting in more than 1 million deaths each year. Due to increasing rates of antibiotic resistance and replacement carriage of nonvaccine serotypes, research into new vaccines, therapeutics, and novel drug targets has become paramount. Analysis of micronutrients, such as metal ions, essential for the growth and survival of S. pneumoniae in vivo is becoming an area of increasing research interest. Recent studies have focused on the crucial role of first-row transition metal ions, which are essential to t..