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J S Kroll

Publications and source records attributed to J S Kroll.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Chronic enteroviral meningoencephalitis in agammaglobulinemia: case report and literature review.

Chronic enteroviral meningoencephalitis is a well-recognized complication in patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). The majority of published cases refers to its occurrence in patients on no replacement therapy or on only intramuscular immunoglobulin. The advent of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in the early 1980s and its widespread use in XLA was thought to have virtually eradicated enteroviral meningoencephalitis in these patients. We describe the development of echovirus meningoencephalitis in an 11-year-old boy on regular IVIg replacement whose serum IgG levels were maintained at between 6 and 8 g/L (NR 6-13 g/L). Treatment with daily high-dose IVIg was commenced, with significant clinical improvement being noted within a few weeks in association with a reduction in blood-brain barrier permeability. The persistence of live virus, however, necessitated the use of intraventricular immunoglobulin. The virus proved resistant to two courses of specific intraventricular immunoglobulin and a 6-week course of oral ribavirin and eventually proved fatal 5 months after presentation. In view of the therapeutic uncertainties we have reviewed the use of immunoglobulin in the treatment of enteroviral meningoencephalitis over the past 6 years.

Acyclovir↗
PubMed1992

The genetics of encapsulation in Haemophilus influenzae.

In Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) strains the cap locus with very few exceptions contains an unstable direct repeat of approximately 17 kb of DNA flanking an approximately 1-kb bridge region containing the gene bexA. Each repeat contains genes necessary for polysaccharide synthesis, export, and surface expression, with BexA a critical component of the polysaccharide exporter. Only rare Hib strains have been identified in which cap lacks a direct repeat, though this is the norm for non-b serotypes. Examination of the ends of this single-copy locus shows that cap has the structure of a compound transposon: Copies of the insertion element IS1016 flank the gene cluster. This gives strains the capacity to amplify genes at cap by unequal homologous recombination. The cap duplication in Hib strains--subserving augmented production of polysaccharide--has apparently arisen in this way and become fixed in the population through deletion of one copy of bexA.

Bacterial Capsules↗
PubMed1992

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase in Haemophilus species.

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutases ([Cu,Zn]-SODs) are ubiquitous in eukaryotes but have rarely been found in prokaryotes. A gene for [Cu,Zn]-SOD (sodC) has recently been cloned from Haemophilus influenzae type b and H. parainfluenzae, so other Haemophilus and related species were screened for the presence of [Cu,Zn]-SODs by visualization of bands of SOD activity in non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels and by gene probing. Strains of H. aphrophilus, H. paraphrophilus, H. haemolyticus, H. paraphrohaemolyticus, some non-typable H. influenzae, H. haemoglobinophilus (canis) and H. parasuis were all found to have [Cu,Zn]-SOD activity (inhibited by 2 mM-cyanide) in polyacrylamide gels. In a Southern blot analysis, DNA from H. aphrophilus, H. paraphrophilus, H. haemolyticus and [Cu,Zn]-SOD-containing non-typable H. influenzae--but not the other species--hybridized to a 360 nucleotide DNA probe containing the 5'-part of sodC cloned from H. influenzae type b. Bacterial [Cu,Zn]-SODs are more prevalent than has previously been recognized.

Blotting, Southern↗
PubMed1992

Insertion sequence IS1016 and absence of Haemophilus capsulation genes in the Brazilian purpuric fever clone of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius.

Brazilian purpuric fever (BPF) strains of Haemophilus influenzae biogroup aegyptius form a clone of organisms distinct from more innocuous, conjunctivitis-associated isolates. There has been controversy over whether the virulence of BPF strains might derive from the presence of a polysaccharide capsule analogous to that found in conventional invasive H. influenzae, a controversy fuelled by the observation (G. M. Carlone, L. Gorelkin, L. L. Gheesling, A. L. Erwin, S. K. Hoiseth, M. H. O. Mulks, S. P. Connor, R. S. Weyant, J. Myrick, L. Rubin, R. S. Mumford III, E. H. White, R. J. Arko, B. Swaminathan, L. M. Graves, L. W. Mayer, M. K. Robinson, S. P. Caudill, and the Brazilian Purpuric Fever Study Group, J. Clin, Microbiol. 27:609-614, 1989) that a capsulation DNA probe from H. influenzae type b hybridized uniquely to BPF strains. In this work, the basis for this hybridization has been established as the possession by BPF strains, but not by non-BPF strains, of the Haemophilus insertion element IS1016. Although IS1016 is associated with the capsulation locus in some Haemophilus spp., a Southern hybridization study suggests that in BPF strains there are no capsulation genes.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Superoxide dismutases of pathogenic and non-pathogenic Streptococcus suis type 2 isolates.

Pathogenic and non-pathogenic isolates of Streptococcus suis type 2 were screened to determine whether differences in superoxide dismutase (SOD) synthesis could explain the observed differences in their pathogenicity and intracellular fate in macrophages. A single band of SOD activity of similar Rf value was visualised in PAGE gels in all isolates and inhibition studies suggested that the cofactor present was manganese. There was no correlation between specific SOD activity and virulence. It is unlikely, therefore, that SOD produced by S. suis type 2 mediates intracellular survival of pathogenic isolates in macrophages.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Capsular typing of Haemophilus influenzae with a DNA probe.

We describe the use of a DNA probe for genotyping clinical isolates of Haemophilus influenzae. The probe, containing capsulation genes, differentiates between the six Haemophilus serotypes in a Southern blotting procedure. It also hybridizes with a distinctive pattern to DNA from capsule-deficient mutants of serotype b strains, while failing to hybridize to DNA from typical clinical isolates of non-serotypable H. influenzae. The probe can thus resolve issues of serotyping uncertainty such as arise, for example, when capsulate strains are found to have lost reactivity with serotyping reagents after storage or transmission from one laboratory to another. The probe has proved useful in the evaluation of Haemophilus infections in infants following administration of H. influenzae type b vaccine. In an illustrative example, the probe was used to resolve serotyping ambiguity in a case of Haemophilus bacteraemia in a vaccine recipient, providing compelling evidence that the organism responsible was neither type b nor derived from a type b strain. The widespread introduction of vaccines against H. influenzae type b disease will increase the importance of the precise identification of strains infecting immunized children. This need can only be met by the development of 'gold standards' such as capsulation gene probes.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Capsulation gene loss and 'rescue' mutations during the Cap+ to Cap- transition in Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Genes for Haemophilus influenzae type b capsule expression are duplicated to form a potentially unstable structure, cap, of directly-repeated chromosomal regions of approximately 17 kb. Capsule-deficient mutants arise in a two-stage process, initiated by rec-dependent reduction of this region from two copies to one. This recombinational event is usually lethal, only about 1/200 surviving to form slow-growing colonies of organisms that continue to synthesize polysaccharide but are defective in its export. A variety of secondary 'rescue' mutations within cap can occur to reduce polysaccharide synthesis and restore normal organism appearance and colony morphology.

Bacterial Capsules↗
PubMed1991

The Haemophilus influenzae capsulation gene cluster: a compound transposon.

The population of capsulate Haemophilus influenzae is divided into two phylogenetic divisions. Here we show that in division I strains the capsulation (cap) gene cluster lies between direct repeats of a novel insertion sequence (IS)-like element, IS1016. cap has apparently been mobilized in the chromosome as a compound transposon by IS1016, and the repeats have provided a molecular substrate for reversible cap gene amplification, with augmentation of capsule production, through unequal homologous recombination. Such amplification has occurred in serotype b strains, but in these a large direct repeat of cap genes has become fixed in the population. We have found a 1.2 kb deletion at one end of this duplicated capb locus, removing most of one copy of the polysaccharide export gene bexA. We have shown that this makes capsulation dependent on preservation of the direct repeat structure in order to avoid recombination-mediated loss of the other copy of bexA. Type b strains with this cap configuration are disseminated worldwide and currently cause nearly all invasive Haemophilus infections, leading us to speculate that the 1.2 kb deletion occurred in an ancestral type b strain and conferred significant biological advantage.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase of Haemophilus influenzae and H. parainfluenzae.

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase ([Cu,Zn]-SOD) is widely found in eukaryotes but has only rarely been identified in bacteria. Here we describe sodC, encoding [Cu,Zn]-SOD in Haemophilus influenzae and H. parainfluenzae, frequent colonists and pathogens of the human respiratory tract. In capsulate H. influenzae, sodC was found in only one division of the bacterial population, and although the protein it encoded was clearly [Cu,Zn]-SOD from its deduced sequence, it lacked enzymatic activity. In H. parainfluenzae, in contrast, active enzyme was synthesized which appeared to be secreted beyond the cytoplasm when the gene was expressed in Escherichia coli minicells. The origin of gene transcription differed between the Haemophilus species, but protein synthesis from cloned genes in vitro was comparable. A C-T transition was found in the H. influenzae sequence compared with the H. parainfluenzae sequence, leading to a histidine, known to be crucial in eukaryotic [Cu,Zn]-SOD for copper ion coordination and so for enzymatic activity, to be changed to tyrosine. This is speculated to be the cause of inactivity of the H. influenzae enzyme. Secreted SODs have only been described in a few bacterial species, and this is the first identification of [Cu,Zn]-SOD in a common human upper respiratory tract colonist. The role of secreted bacterial SODs is unknown, and we speculate that in Haemophilus species the enzyme may confer survival advantage by accelerating dismutation of superoxide of environmental origin to hydrogen peroxide, disruptive to the normal mucociliary clearance process in the host.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

The bex locus in encapsulated Haemophilus influenzae: a chromosomal region involved in capsule polysaccharide export.

The nucleotide sequence of a 5.1 kb region in the Haemophilus influenzae type b capsulation locus has been determined and found to contain four open reading frames: bexD, bexC, bexB, and bexA. Comparison of the deduced products of bexC, bexB, and bexA to known proteins, and TnphoA mutagenesis, suggests that they form components of an ATP-driven polysaccharide export apparatus. Furthermore, close sequence similarity between BexA and BexB and products of the kpsT and kpsM genes at the Escherichia coli K5 capsulation locus (Smith et al., 1990--accompanying paper) suggests that capsulation genes in these organisms may have a common ancestry.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMed1990

Capsulation in distantly related strains of Haemophilus influenzae type b: genetic drift and gene transfer at the capsulation locus.

Among natural populations of capsulate Haemophilus influenzae, clones of strains with type b capsular polysaccharide are found in each of two widely separated phylogenetic divisions. The chromosomal capsulation locus found in strains from either division has a three-segment organization, with serotype-specific DNA nested between elements common to all serotypes, but pairwise comparison of the segments between the divisions suggests that they have distinct phylogenetic histories. Genes clustered in one of the non-serotype-specific segments appear to have diverged from an ancestral element, reflected in 12% nucleotide sequence divergence in one homologous pair. In contrast, genes conferring the capacity to produce type-specific polysaccharide exhibit no such divergence, and we speculate that these have been subject more recently to horizontal transfer within the bacterial population. Clinically important capsulate gram-negative bacteria share a common organization of their capsulation loci, arguing convergence on a successful arrangement of genes. In H. influenzae this appears to have allowed the occasional exchange of serotype-specific capsulation genes between strains, a event of potential clinical importance in this major bacterial pathogen.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Genetic and phenotypic variation in the capsulation and virulence of culture collection strains of Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Haemophilus influenzae type b strains deposited in the National Reference Collections of the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden are derived from strains isolated in the United States during the 1940s. With respect to both the genetic locus for capsulation and to virulence, assessed in the infant rat bacteremia model, these strains are no longer representative of clinical isolates which currently cause meningitis and other serious infections in children all over the world. Alternative well-characterized strains resembling current common clinical isolates may often be more suitable for the study of Haemophilus influenzae pathogenicity.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The molecular basis of pathogenicity in Haemophilus influenzae: comparative virulence of genetically-related capsular transformants and correlation with changes at the capsulation locus cap.

Serotype b strains of Haemophilus influenzae are strikingly more highly associated with episodes of invasive, life-threatening infection in young children than are strains of other serotypes, but the role that the capsule itself plays in determining this virulence has not been dissected away from that of possibly linked virulence determinants such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Using DNA from clinical isolates of all six serotypes (a-f) and a genetically-defined capsule-deficient recipient strain Rb-: 02, we constructed a series of capsular transformants otherwise identical with respect to outer-membrane protein and LPS subtype, biotype, and electrotype. Cloned DNA was also used to create type a and b transformants isogenic outside the capsulation locus to provide the most rigorous test to determine whether capsule alone modulates pathogenicity. Capsular transformants showed the same spectrum of virulence in an infant rat bacteremia/meningitis assay as wild-type strains, thus implicating the capsule polysaccharide as an independent determinant of virulence. Experiments in intact and splenectomised rats identified a critical role for type b capsule in enabling organisms to evade splenic clearance.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Common organization of chromosomal loci for production of different capsular polysaccharides in Haemophilus influenzae.

Cloned Haemophilus influenzae type b capsulation genes were used as hybridization probes to isolate DNA from the capsulation loci (cap) of other serotypes of H. influenzae. Mapping of the resulting clones and Southern hybridization analysis of chromosomal DNAs from type a, b, c, and d strains showed that in each strain cap was organized in the same way: a central DNA segment specific to each serotype flanked by DNA segments of common structure. We infer that enzymes necessary for the synthesis of specific capsular polysaccharide are encoded in the central segment of cap, while proteins involved in a more general way in the process of capsulation are encoded in the flanking segments. Studies of the function of the DNA in one of these non-serotype-specific flanking segments (J. S. Kroll, I. Hopkins, and E. R. Moxon, Cell 53:347-356, 1988) have previously identified a gene encoding a protein necessary for polysaccharide export, an event now deduced to proceed by a mechanism independent of the nature of the disaccharide subunit in the polysaccharide. The near-total duplication of cap that has been found in most type b strains was not found at the analogous locus in the other serotypes. This reinforces our previous hypothesis, based on study of type b strains alone, that while such a duplication is unnecessary for capsulation, it confers some unexplained survival advantage on the widely prevalent strains with this clinically important serotype.

Blotting, Southern↗
PubMed1988

Capsule loss in H. influenzae type b occurs by recombination-mediated disruption of a gene essential for polysaccharide export.

The capsulation locus cap in H. influenzae type b contains directly repeated segments of DNA flanking a bridge region. Here we show that this bridge region contains a gene, bexA, encoding a 24.7 kd protein essential for export of capsular polysaccharide. bexA is disrupted, with loss of part of its coding sequence, in the spontaneous reduction of the duplicated cap locus to single-copy that accompanies loss of capsule expression. The predicted amino acid sequence of BexA aligns significantly with that of MalK from E. coli and with HisP and OppD of S. typhimurium. Thus, polysaccharide export might occur via an energy-dependent transporter with similarities to those identified for the import of various substrates into Gram-negative bacteria, BexA being the "energizer" of the transporter.

Amino Acid Sequence↗