Multicenter study of serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal isolates from healthy children in the Russian Federation after introduction of PCV13 into the National Vaccination Calendar.

Russia introduced PCV13 in 2014. We studied the serotype composition of S. pneumoniae isolated from the nasopharynx of healthy children younger than 6 years in St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Perm, Krasnoyarsk, Khanty-Mansiysk and Khabarovsk, between 2016 and 2018. 2.4% of children had completed a 3-dose course of PCV13, while 25.6% had received 1 or 2 doses. Pneumococcal DNA detection by PCR demonstrated S. pneumoniae in 37.2% of samples with regional variation between sites (27.3 to 56.9%). There was little difference between vaccinated, partially vaccinated and un-vaccinated children. Children who had received at least 1 dose of PCV13 had lower carriage rates of vaccine serotypes than their unvaccinated peers (49.9 vs. 61.4%; p < 0.001). Children who had received at least 1 dose of PCV13 showed increased carriage rates of non-vaccine serotypes (50 vs 38.6%; P < 0.001). Especially serogroup 15AF was more prevalent among fully immunized children than among their peers (12.5 vs 2.7%; P < 0.05).

Molecular characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae, particularly serotype19A/ST320, which emerged in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

Streptococcus pneumoniae, a common human pathogen, colonizes the nasopharynx and causes diseases including acute otitis media (AOM). Herein, pneumococcal serotype distributions in children before and after PCV7 vaccination and in patients with pneumococcal disease in Siberian Russia (Krasnoyarsk) are reported. Analyses included antimicrobial susceptibility testing, sequence typing (ST), pulsed field gel electrophoresis, virulence-related surface protein gene (VSG) typing with novel primers and structural analysis by scanning electron microscopy. In healthy children (HC) prior to administration of PCV7, drug-susceptible serotype23F/ST1500 was a major pneumococcal genotype. In the PCV7 trial, multidrug-resistant serotype19A/ST320 emerged in vaccinees after PCV7, exhibiting a PCV7-induced serotype replacement. Multidrug-resistant serotype19A/ST320 was evident in patients with AOM. Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) isolates showed genetic similarities to the AOM (ST320) genotype, constituting a common non-invasive AOM-CAP group. In contrast, meningitis isolates were more divergent. Overall, 25 ST types were identified; five (20%) of which were Krasnoyarsk-native. Regarding VSGs, PI-1 (rlrA/rrgB), PI-2 (pitA/B), psrP and cbpA were present at 54.3%, 38.6%, 48.6%, and 95.7%, respectively, with two major VSG content types, PI-1- /PI-2- /psrP+ /cbpA+ and PI-1+ /PI-2+ /psrP- /cbpA+ , being found for HC and non-invasive diseases, respectively. A major clone of serotype19A/ST320 (PI-1+ /PI-2+ ) produced the longest pneumococcal wire (pilus) structures in colonies. ST1016 (PI-1- /PI-2- ) in HC had HEp-2 cell-adherent pili. These results suggest that serotype19A/ST320 and related genotypes, with the VSG content type PI-1+ /PI-2+ /psrP- /cbpA+ , emerged in vaccinees after PCV7 in Siberia, accompanying diseases in non-vaccinated children, and that some genotypes (serotypes19A/ST320 and 18/ST1016) produced novel pneumococcal structures, predicting their roles in colony formation and adherence.