Pneumococci are a common cause of severe infections, such as otitis media, pneumonia, meningitis and bacteremia. Pili are detected in a small proportion of pneumococcal population, but these structures have recently been associated with bacterial virulence in humans. Therefore, the epidemiological relationships between pneumococcal pili, serotype and antimicrobial resistance are of interest. This study aims to discuss the virulence contribution of the Streptococcus pneumoniae pili and the epidemiological relationships among the pilus genes, antimicrobial resistance trends, regional serotypes and genotypic variations. Previous reports have characterized the pneumococcal pilus islet as a clonal feature in the pneumococcal serotypes that are covered by the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), including serotypes 19A, 19F, 23F and 7F. Many of the pneumococcal molecular epidemiology network (PMEN) clones are piliated isolates that are also strongly associated with a high frequency of multidrug resistance. Most of these piliated pneumococcal isolates belong to a few clonal complexes (CC), such as CC320, CC199, CC271, CC191 and CC156. Additional molecular epidemiology and genomic studies, particularly whole genome sequence analysis (WGS), are needed to develop an in-depth understanding of the piliated pneumococcal isolates.

肺炎球菌是引起严重感染的常见原因，例如中耳炎，肺炎，脑膜炎和菌血症。在一小部分肺炎球菌人群中发现了菌毛，但最近这些结构与人类细菌致病性有关。因此，肺炎球菌菌毛，血清型和抗菌素耐药性之间的流行病学关系是令人关注的。这项研究旨在讨论肺炎链球菌的毒性作用菌毛和菌毛基因，抗菌素耐药性趋势，区域血清型和基因型变异之间的流行病学关系。先前的报道已将肺炎球菌菌毛胰岛定性为肺炎球菌结合疫苗（PCV）涵盖的肺炎球菌血清型的克隆特征，包括血清型19A，19F，23F和7F。许多肺炎球菌分子流行病学网络（PMEN）克隆是有毛的分离株，也与高频率的多药耐药性密切相关。这些有丝状肺炎球菌分离株大多数属于少数克隆复合物（CC），例如CC320，CC199，CC271，CC191和CC156。需要进一步的分子流行病学和基因组学研究，尤其是全基因组序列分析（WGS），以深入了解纤毛性肺炎球菌分离株。