[SCAN] About and around Streptococcus pneumoniae

Title: About and around Streptococcus pneumoniae

Speaker: Ana Cristina Paulo

Abstract: This presentation will discuss the impact that the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines had on the pneumococcal community using tools borrowed from community ecology. I will show that the PCVs disturbed the pneumococcal community equilibrium in ways that we can predict. These results are important since colonization precedes disease and thus use of these methods can add a valuable contribution to better surveillance of vaccination impact. The second part of this presentation will discuss how carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae, smoking habits and contact with children altered the upper respiratory tract microbiota of healthy adults. In adults the presence of S. pneumoniae in the nasopharynx was associated with a shift in the microbiota and dominance of the Streptococcus genus. In addition, smoking habits seem to lead to an increase of bacterial genera associated with periodontal diseases. Finally, we observed that adults who have regular contact with children have a microbiota enriched in pathobionts frequently carried by children. Our findings contribute to increase our understanding of how different factors shape the upper respiratory tract microbiota of adults.