Our understanding on bacterial genetic determinants of pneumococcal disease manifestation is still limited. We aim to confirm the previous findings and identify additional bacterial variants associated with meningitis.
We sequenced IPD isolates identified through the Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) in the United States from 2016 to 2017. We evaluated the association between meningitis and a previously reported pneumococcal pbp1b641C allele by using a mixed-effects logistic regression model accounting for population structure (represented by multi-locus sequence type) and potential confounders (pneumococcal serotype, antibiotic resistance, and patient age). We also performed a k-mer based bacterial genome-wide association study (GWAS).
Among all 5560 sequenced IPD isolates, 371 (6.7%) were from meningitis cases. Among the 576 isolates carrying the pbp1b641C allele, 86 (14.9%) were meningitis. After adjusting for covariates, the pbp1b641C allele was significantly associated with meningitis (OR=1.76, 95% CI,1.10-2.81). Pneumococcal genome contents explained 8.2% (95% CI,1.6%-13.2%) of variation in meningitis in the GWAS. Additional pneumococcal mutations that showed significant association were identified in loci including SP_1448 (conserved hypothetical protein, p=1.7×10-8), SP_2167 (L-fuculokinase, p=3.6×10-8), and SP_0647 (phosphotransferase, p=1.0×10-7).
IPD manifestation varied significantly according to pneumococcal genomes. More knowledge on such mutations could help better understand bacterial pathogenesis and clinical outcome.