Dietary zinc and the control of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection

Bart A Eijkelkamp; Jacqueline R Morey; Stephanie L Neville; Aimee Tan; Victoria G Pederick; Nerida Cole; Prashina P Singh; Cheryl-Lynn Y Ong; Raquel Gonzalez de Vega; David Clases; Bliss A Cunningham; Catherine E Hughes; Iain Comerford; Erin B Brazel; Jonathan J Whittall; Charles D Plumptre; Shaun R McColl; James C Paton; Alastair G McEwan; Philip A Doble; Christopher A Mcdevitt

Journal article

Dietary zinc and the control of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection

Bart A Eijkelkamp, Jacqueline R Morey, Stephanie L Neville, Aimee Tan, Victoria G Pederick, Nerida Cole, Prashina P Singh, Cheryl-Lynn Y Ong, Raquel Gonzalez de Vega, David Clases, Bliss A Cunningham, Catherine E Hughes, Iain Comerford, Erin B Brazel, Jonathan J Whittall, Charles D Plumptre, Shaun R McColl, James C Paton, Alastair G McEwan, Philip A Doble Show all

PLOS PATHOGENS | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007957

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Abstract

Human zinc deficiency increases susceptibility to bacterial infection. Although zinc supplementation therapies can reduce the impact of disease, the molecular basis for protection remains unclear. Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of bacterial pneumonia, which is prevalent in regions of zinc deficiency. We report that dietary zinc levels dictate the outcome of S. pneumoniae infection in a murine model. Dietary zinc restriction impacts murine tissue zinc levels with distribution post-infection altered, and S. pneumoniae virulence and infection enhanced. Although the activation and infiltration of murine phagocytic cells was not affected by zinc restriction, their efficacy of bacterial..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Christopher McDevitt Author Microbiology and Immunology

Bliss Cunningham Author Microbiology and Immunology

Aimee Tan Author Microbiology and Immunology

Stephanie Neville Author Microbiology and Immunology

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Awarded by Australian Research Council (ARC)

Awarded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)

Funding Acknowledgements

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; https://nhmrc.gov.au/) by Project Grant 1080784 to C.A.M., 1122582 to A.G.M., P.A.D. and C.A.M., and Program Grant 1071659 to J.C.P. This work was also supported by Australian Research Council (ARC; https://www.arc. gov. au/) Discovery Project Grants DP170100036 and DP190102361 to P.A.D. and DP170102102 to J.C.P. and C.A.M. S.L.N. is a NHMRC Doherty Early Career Fellow (1142695), D.C. is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation - 417283954) (https://www.dfg.de/), C.L.O. is a Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation (https://gprwmf.org.au/) Research Fellow and C.A.M. is an ARC Future Fellow (FT170100006).