---

The pneumococcus is one major cause of bacterial meningitis, a wide-spread disease of newborn and immune-compromised individuals, which shows CFRs up to 50% in countries with low medical standards. Bacterial spreading affects the meninges, and the sub-meningeal cortex tissue, whereat the presence of pneumolysin, a major virulence factor of the pneumococcus, is prerequisite for the development of a severe outcome of the infection and associated tissue damage. Pneumolysin belongs to the family of cholesterol-dependent cytolysins, which use membrane-cholesterol as receptor and oligomerize to big aggregates, which induce cell lysis and cell death by disturbance of membrane integrity. This work has revealed a new picture of pneumolysin, whose cell-related properties go beyond pore formation and cell lysis. A direct interaction of the toxin with actin leads to cell-shape remodeling in astrocytes, which potentially disturbes neuronal homeostasis and favors bacterial tissue penetration.

---

Sabrina Hupp (Dipl Biol Univ). Master of Science in Biology (Microbiology, Forensic Medicine and Pharmaceutical Biology) at the University of Würzburg. PhD, Biomedical Science Graduate Program at the University of Würzburg (Rudolf-Virchow-Center, DFG Research Center for Experimental Biomedicine).

---