Katherine L Kruckow

Chronic low-grade inflammation, particularly elevated tumor necrosis factor (TNF) levels, occurs due to advanced age and is associated with greater susceptibility to infection. One reason for this is age-dependent macrophage...

Anaerobic bacteria are responsible for half of all pulmonary infections. One such pathogen is Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn), a leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia, bacteremia/sepsis, and meningitis. Using a panel of...

Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) is a major public health problem, as it is a main cause of otitis media, community-acquired pneumonia, bacteremia, sepsis, and meningitis. Acute episodes of pneumococcal disease have...

Streptococcus pneumoniae colonizes the nasopharynx asymptomatically but can also cause severe life-threatening disease. Importantly, stark differences in carbohydrate availability exist between the nasopharynx and invasive disease sites, such as the...

The polysaccharide capsule that surrounds Streptococcus pneumoniae () is one of its most important virulence determinants, serving to protect against phagocytosis. To date, 100 biochemical and antigenically distinct capsule types,...

Pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) and pneumococcal surface protein C (PspC, also called CbpA) are major virulence factors of (). These surface-exposed choline-binding proteins (CBPs) function independently to inhibit opsonization,...

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae infection can result in bacteremia with devastating consequences including heart damage. Necroptosis is a proinflammatory form of cell death instigated by pore-forming toxins such as S. pneumoniae...