INVASIVE STRAINS OF NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS HAVE WEAKER IMUNOSTIMULATORY EFFECTS IN COMPARISON TO COLONIZING STRAINS
Abstract
Neisseria meningitides is an important human pathogen, which can cause severe invasive disease. Carriage state of the bacteria is common and reason why the infection becomes invasive are not fully elucidated.
Therefore, we aimed our study at differences between expression of TLR2, TLR4, CD14 and HLA-DR as well as cytokine production after in vitro stimulation of monocytes by heat-killed invasive and colonizing strains of N. meningitides. Our findings indicate a weaker immunostimulatory potency of invasive strains of N. meningitides contrary to colonizing strains, which could be one of the reasons why invasive strains of N. meningitides gain entry into the boodstream, whereas the colonizing strains are contained in the epithelia of the upper airways.