Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study
The ongoing emergence of antibiotic resistant strains and high frequencies of antibiotic resistance of <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> poses a major public health challenge. How and which ecological and evolutionary mechanisms maintain the coexistence of antibiotic resistant and suscepti...
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doaj-5fb8a26081334e7485475385971d13d12021-03-17T00:05:14ZengMDPI AGVaccines2076-393X2021-03-01926526510.3390/vaccines9030265Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling StudyJosé Lourenço0Yair Daon1Andrea Gori2Uri Obolski3Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SZ, UKSchool of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, IsraelNIHR Global Health Research Unit on Mucosal Pathogens, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UKSchool of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, IsraelThe ongoing emergence of antibiotic resistant strains and high frequencies of antibiotic resistance of <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> poses a major public health challenge. How and which ecological and evolutionary mechanisms maintain the coexistence of antibiotic resistant and susceptible strains remains largely an open question. We developed an individual-based, stochastic model expanding on a previous pneumococci modelling framework. We explore how between- and within-host mechanisms of competition can sustain observed levels of resistance to antibiotics in the pre-vaccination era. Our framework considers that within-host competition for co-colonization between resistant and susceptible strains can arise via pre-existing immunity (immunological competition) or intrinsic fitness differences due to resistance costs (ecological competition). We find that beyond stochasticity, population structure or movement, competition at the within-host level can explain observed resistance frequencies. We compare our simulation results to pneumococcal antibiotic resistance data in the European region using approximate Bayesian computation. Our results demonstrate that ecological competition for co-colonization can explain the variation in co-existence of resistant and susceptible pneumococci observed in the pre-vaccination era. Furthermore, we show that within-host pneumococcal competition can facilitate the maintenance of resistance in the pre-vaccination era. Accounting for these competition-related components of pneumococcal dynamics can improve our understanding of drivers for the emergence and maintenance of antibiotic resistance in pneumococci.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/3/265antibiotic resistance<i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i>ecological competitionimmunological competitionpre-vaccination |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
José Lourenço Yair Daon Andrea Gori Uri Obolski |
spellingShingle |
José Lourenço Yair Daon Andrea Gori Uri Obolski Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study Vaccines antibiotic resistance <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> ecological competition immunological competition pre-vaccination |
author_facet |
José Lourenço Yair Daon Andrea Gori Uri Obolski |
author_sort |
José Lourenço |
title |
Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study |
title_short |
Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study |
title_full |
Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study |
title_fullStr |
Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pneumococcal Competition Modulates Antibiotic Resistance in the Pre-Vaccination Era: A Modelling Study |
title_sort |
pneumococcal competition modulates antibiotic resistance in the pre-vaccination era: a modelling study |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Vaccines |
issn |
2076-393X |
publishDate |
2021-03-01 |
description |
The ongoing emergence of antibiotic resistant strains and high frequencies of antibiotic resistance of <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> poses a major public health challenge. How and which ecological and evolutionary mechanisms maintain the coexistence of antibiotic resistant and susceptible strains remains largely an open question. We developed an individual-based, stochastic model expanding on a previous pneumococci modelling framework. We explore how between- and within-host mechanisms of competition can sustain observed levels of resistance to antibiotics in the pre-vaccination era. Our framework considers that within-host competition for co-colonization between resistant and susceptible strains can arise via pre-existing immunity (immunological competition) or intrinsic fitness differences due to resistance costs (ecological competition). We find that beyond stochasticity, population structure or movement, competition at the within-host level can explain observed resistance frequencies. We compare our simulation results to pneumococcal antibiotic resistance data in the European region using approximate Bayesian computation. Our results demonstrate that ecological competition for co-colonization can explain the variation in co-existence of resistant and susceptible pneumococci observed in the pre-vaccination era. Furthermore, we show that within-host pneumococcal competition can facilitate the maintenance of resistance in the pre-vaccination era. Accounting for these competition-related components of pneumococcal dynamics can improve our understanding of drivers for the emergence and maintenance of antibiotic resistance in pneumococci. |
topic |
antibiotic resistance <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> ecological competition immunological competition pre-vaccination |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/3/265 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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