A Mouse Model for the Transition of Streptococcus pneumoniae from Colonizer to Pathogen upon Viral Co-Infection Recapitulates Age-Exacerbated IllnessAlexsandra Lenhard *1, Basma H. Joma *2,3, Nalat Siwapornchai 2, Anders P. Hakansson 4, John M. Leong 2,5, Elsa N. Bou Ghanem 1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University at Buffalo School of Medicine, 2Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, 3Graduate Program in Immunology, Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 4Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University, 5Stuart B. Levy Center for the Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, Tufts University
This paper describes a novel mouse model for the transition of pneumococcus from an asymptomatic colonizer to a disease-causing pathogen during viral infection. This model can be readily adapted to study polymicrobial and host-pathogen interactions during the different phases of disease progression and across various hosts.
