Rapid expansion and international spread of M1<sub>UK</sub> in the post-pandemic UK upsurge of Streptococcus pyogenes.
other · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38729927.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-47929-7 and PMC identifier 11087535.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The UK observed a marked increase in scarlet fever and invasive group A streptococcal infection in 2022 with severe outcomes in children and similar trends worldwide. Here we report lineage M1<sub>UK</sub> to be the dominant source of invasive infections in this upsurge. Compared with ancestral M1<sub>global</sub> strains, invasive M1<sub>UK</sub> strains exhibit reduced genomic diversity and fewer mutations in two-component regulator genes covRS. The emergence of M1<sub>UK</sub> is dated to 2008. Following a bottleneck coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, three emergent M1<sub>UK</sub> clades underwent rapid nationwide expansion, despite lack of detection in previous years. All M1<sub>UK</sub> isolates thus-far sequenced globally have a phylogenetic origin in the UK, with dispersal of the new clades in Europe. While waning immunity may promote streptococcal epidemics, the genetic features of M1<sub>UK</sub> point to a fitness advantage in pathogenicity, and a striking ability to persist through population bottlenecks.
Medical subject headings
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Streptococcal Infections
- Phylogeny
- COVID-19