Rheumatic fever – pathogenesis and vaccine

Abstract

Group A streptococci (GAS) infections are considered a public health problem in developing countries, with about 600 million cases per year and are responsible for an wide spectrum of diseases, mainly invasive diseases as pharyngitis and pyoderma that lead to rheumatic fever (RF) and glomerulonephritis autoimmune sequelae. RF affects children and young adults, and presents different manifestations such as rheumatic heart disease (RHD), Sydenham chorea, erythema marginatum, subcutaneous nodules. RHD is considered the most serious complications leading to cardiac valvular lesions characterized by progressive and permanent heart-valve damage, which entails high cost to the Healthy System around the world. In the present review we described the mechanisms that lead to rheumatic heart lesions and the development of a vaccine against Streptococcus pyogenes.