Transcriptomic analysis of acute and carrier GAS samples from oropharyngeal throat swabs.

Carriage poses challenges for clinical management and contributes to transmission in the community. Comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic analyses of naturally acquired human GAS carriage have been lacking.

In this study, we collected longitudinal samples from individuals before and after antibiotic treatment for acute pharyngitis, performing whole genome sequencing and RNA-seq on selected isolates. This is the first report of transcriptional profiling of GAS directly from human derived oropharyngeal swabs. Transcriptional profiling from oropharyngeal swabs identified distinct gene expression patterns between the acute infection and post-treatment carriage phases, although early acute expression profiles did not predict treatment failure.