Thursday, June 30, 2016

Immunopathogenesis of Staphylococcal Skin Infections

Hill PB and Imai A. The immunopathogenesis of staphylococcal skin infections – A review. Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases 2016; 49: 8-28(Link to Article). 
PubMed ID (PMID): NA
Reprints: Peter Hill
Comments: This is a review paper that highlights Saphylococcus virulence factors, especially those used to "invade" the skin, and the "defenses" used by the skin and the immune system to resist infections by this microbe. This article provides relevance information in an entertaining fashion
Recommended by: Thierry Olivry, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

The Skin Microbiome of Healthy and Atopic Dogs

Bradley CW, Morris DO, Rankin SC, Cain CL, Misic AM, Houser T, Mauldin EA and Grice EA . Longitudinal evaluation of the skin microbiome and association with microenvironment and treatment in canine atopic dermatitis. Journal of Investigative Dermatology 2016; 136: 1182-1190(Link to Pubmed). 
PubMed ID (PMID): 26854488
Reprints: Elizabeth Grice
Comments: This study compared the skin surface microbiome at four body sites (axilla, pinna, groin, mouth) in 16 healthy dogs and 14 dogs diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (AD) and associated superficial pyoderma. All atopic dogs were treated with antibiotics, but, in half of these cases, also (as shown by the last supplementary table) with anti-inflammatory drugs; the microbiome was then re-evaluated post-antibiotics and several weeks thereafter. As shown in a previous study (see a previous blog entry, PMID 24421875) the skin of healthy dogs had a more diverse bacterial microbiome than that of dogs with AD. This lower bacterial diversity of atopic dogs was associated with increased proportions of Staphylococcus species (mostly S. pseudintermedius, as expected) and Corynebacterium species. Antibiotic (± anti-allergic) therapy led to a reduction of Staphylococcus populations and re-increase in diversity. Interestingly, the skin lesion scores were correlated with the relative abundance of Staphylococcus species. Finally, and as expected, transepidermal water loss was positively correlated with skin lesion scores, while pH was negatively correlated with lesion grades.
This paper supports previous findings and provides additional information on the similarity between microbiome changes during AD in humans and dogs
Recommended by: Thierry Olivry, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA