Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Mar;82(3):1141-6.
doi: 10.1128/IAI.01310-13. Epub 2013 Dec 26.

Biofilm formation enhances fomite survival of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes

Laura R Marks  1 , Ryan M Reddinger, Anders P Hakansson
Affiliations

Biofilm formation enhances fomite survival of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes

Laura R Marks et al. Infect Immun. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Both Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae are widely thought to rapidly die outside the human host, losing infectivity following desiccation in the environment. However, to date, all literature investigating the infectivity of desiccated streptococci has used broth-grown, planktonic populations. In this study, we examined the impact of biofilm formation on environmental survival of clinical and laboratory isolates of S. pyogenes and S. pneumoniae as both organisms are thought to colonize the human host as biofilms. Results clearly demonstrate that while planktonic cells that are desiccated rapidly lose viability both on hands and abiotic surfaces, such as plastic, biofilm bacteria remain viable over extended periods of time outside the host and remain infectious in a murine colonization model. To explore the level and extent of streptococcal fomite contamination that children might be exposed to naturally, direct bacteriologic cultures of items in a day care center were conducted, which demonstrated high levels of viable streptococci of both species. These findings raise the possibility that streptococci may survive in the environment and be transferred from person to person via fomites contaminated with oropharyngeal secretions containing biofilm streptococci.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Survival of desiccated streptococcal fomites on plastic. Data represent the viability of desiccated pneumococci grown to mid-log phase (A) or 2 h into stationary phase (C), GAS grown to mid-log phase (B) or 2 h into stationary phase (C), or biofilm-derived pneumococcal (C) and GAS (D) fomites over 30 to 120 days postdesiccation. Biofilm bacteria showed significantly increased survival for both bacterial species from day 3 and on (P < 0.001 for days 3 and 8 and P < 0.01 for day 30 for pneumococci compared with both sets of broth-grown conditions and P < 0.01 for days 3, 7, and 30 and P < 0.001 for day 120 compared with both sets of broth-grown conditions). N.D or N.D. in the figure indicates that results were not determined.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Colonizing capacity of streptococcal fomites. Data represent 48-h colonization of the nasopharyngeal tissue (pneumococci) and nasopharynx-associated lymphoid tissue (NALT; GAS) of 1-month-old biofilm-derived EF3030 pneumococcal fomites and GAS 771 fomites. The dashed line represents the detection limit.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Survival of streptococcal populations on hands. Data represent the viability of broth-grown planktonic-derived and biofilm-derived pneumococcal (A) and GAS (B) fomites on hands over 3 h. The dashed line represents the detection limit. Survival of biofilm bacteria was significantly increased for pneumococci at both 1 and 3 h (P < 0.01 for both time points).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bogaert D, De Groot R, Hermans PW. 2004. Streptococcus pneumoniae colonisation: the key to pneumococcal disease. Lancet Infect. Dis. 4:144–154. 10.1016/S1473-3099(04)00938-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Musher DM. 2003. How contagious are common respiratory tract infections? N. Engl. J. Med. 348:1256–1266. 10.1056/NEJMra021771 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Thornton JA, Durick-Eder K, Tuomanen EI. 2010. Pneumococcal pathogenesis: “innate invasion” yet organ-specific damage. J. Mol. Med. 88:103–107. 10.1007/s00109-009-0578-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Steer AC, Lamagni T, Curtis N, Carapetis JR. 2012. Invasive group a streptococcal disease: epidemiology, pathogenesis and management. Drugs 72:1213–1227. 10.2165/11634180-000000000-00000 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hamburger M, Jr, Green MJ, Hamburger VG. 1945. The problem of the dangerous carrier of hemolytic streptococci; spread of infection by individuals with strongly positive nose cultures who expelled large numbers of hemolytic streptococci. J. Infect. Dis. 77:96–108. 10.1093/infdis/77.2.96 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources