Nature Medicine10, 842 - 848 (2004)
Published online: 11 July 2004; | doi:10.1038/nm1079
Staphylococcus aureus protein A induces airway epithelial inflammatory responses by activating TNFR1
Marisa I Gómez1, Aram Lee1, Bharat Reddy1, Amanda Muir1, Grace Soong1, Allyson Pitt1, Ambrose Cheung2
& Alice Prince1
1
Department of Pediatrics, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
2
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
Correspondence should be addressed to Alice Prince asp7@columbia.edu
Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen that is associated with diverse types of local and systemic infection characterized by inflammation dominated by polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Staphylococci frequently cause pneumonia, and these clinical isolates often have increased expression of protein A, suggesting that this protein may have a role in virulence. Here we show that TNFR1, a receptor for tumor-necrosis factor- (TNF-) that is widely distributed on the airway epithelium, is a receptor for protein A. We also show that the protein A−TNFR1 signaling pathway has a central role in the pathogenesis of staphylococcal pneumonia.
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