{"doi":"10.3389/fcimb.2022.1028047","title":"Editorial: Transmission, colonization, and molecular pathogenesis of pneumococcus","abstract":"Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn; pneumococcus) has been for decades a number one bacterial killer of children and older adults worldwide, but it is also a commensal of the upper respiratory tract. Although vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines has decreased the burden of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), mortality caused by this pathogen remains a concern worldwide. The introduction of new generations of pneumococcal vaccines is creating a niche for vaccine-escape serotypes and changes in the microbiome of the upper airways is expected to occur. Moreover, the rise of multidrug-resistant clones around the world has posed a serious threat in recent years. A comprehensive understanding of the transmission, colonization, and molecular pathogenesis of the pneumococcus is necessary to come out with improved interventions aimed to further reduce the burden of IPD. To date, more than 100 distinct pneumococcal capsular serotypes have been identified but current pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV10, PCV13, PCV20), and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) protect against up to a total of 24 different pneumococcal types. These vaccines have decreased the burden of pneumococcal disease produced by vaccine types (VT) but provide poor protection against non-vaccine serotypes (NVT) and non-encapsulated Spn (NES) strains. Additionally, the increasing prevalence of NVTs, NES and multi-drug resistant Spn strains results in more challenge for the treatment of pneumococcal infections. In this Research Topic, we have compiled a series of research articles contributing to our understanding of transmission, colonization, molecular","journal":"Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology","year":2022,"id":300421,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9585,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":505311,"name":"Elsa N. Bou Ghanem","orcid":"0000-0002-8936-1341","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":907127,"name":"Xueqing Wu","orcid":"0000-0001-8013-5770","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":990897,"name":"Kaifeng Wu","orcid":"0000-0002-1047-6606","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322527,"name":"Guangchun Bai","orcid":"0000-0002-2086-4020","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":957874,"name":"Sven Hammerschmidt","orcid":"0000-0002-6382-6681","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":449056,"name":"Jorge E. Vidal","orcid":"0000-0003-0573-5658","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:53.559757Z","pmid":"36176577","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}