Streptococcus mitisStrains Causing Severe Clinical Disease in Cancer Patients

• DOI: 10.3201/eid2005.130953
• Publication Date: 2014-03-26T18:03:55Z
• Authors: Samuel A. Shelburne; Pranoti Sahasrabh...; Miguel Saldana; Hui Yao; Xiaoping Su; Nicola Horstmann; Erika Thompson; Anthony R. Flores
• Keywords: Streptococcus mitis; Streptococcus oralis; Bacteremia; Viridans streptococci; Human pathogen

The genetically diverse viridans group streptococci (VGS) are increasingly recognized as the cause of a variety human diseases. We used recently developed multilocus sequence analysis scheme to define species 118 unique VGS strains causing bacteremia in patients with cancer; Streptococcus mitis (68 patients) and S. oralis (22 were most frequently identified strains. Compared infected non-S. strains, more likely have moderate or severe clinical disease (e.g., shock syndrome). Combined data, whole-genome analyses showed that may precisely be considered >2 species. Furthermore, we found multiple induced neutropenic mice dose-dependent fashion. Our data prominent effect organisms currently classified lay groundwork for increased understanding this understudied pathogen.