MRSA in Stealth Mode Evades Antibody Recognition

In Nature , Gerlach et al . ( Nature 2018;563:705–709) report that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus camouflages its surface by displaying a ‘stealth' wall teichoic acid (WTA) isomer. WTA can act as a cloak to limit exposure of surface antigens to the immune system, but this report indicates that even the cloak can become immunologically silent.