Cadmium is a transition metal ion that is highly toxic in biological systems. Although relatively rare in the Earth’s crust, anthropogenic release of cadmium since industrialization has increased ...

The importance of Streptococcus pneumoniae as a human pathogen has prompted intense investigation in the post genomics era, with more genome sequences available than for most other species 1. In spite ...

In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers investigate the effect of colonization of the upper respiratory tract (URT) by Streptococcus pneumoniae on severe acute ...

Bacterial colonization in the upper respiratory tract is considered to be one of the major risk factors of COVID-19. In this context, studies have shown that the co-occurrence of invasive pneumococcal ...

Now researchers have found a further reason for the severity of this dual infection by identifying a new virulence mechanism for a surface protein on the pneumonia-causing bacteria S. pneumoniae. This ...