Immune escape mechanism that promotes listeria infection of the central nervous system has been discovered by the scientists at the Institut Pasteur, Universit Paris Cit, Inserm and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP), as published in Nature.
Listeria monocytogenes is the bacterium responsible for listeria infection human listeriosis. It is a severe foodborne illness that can lead to a serious and fatal central nervous system infection known as neurolisteriosis (30% mortality).
‘Mechanisms by which hypervirulent strains of Listeria monocytogenes (bacterium) hold a greater ability to infect the central nervous system by escaping the immune responses have been discovered.’
The study states that the escape mechanism provides infected cells circulating in the blood with a higher probability of adhering to and infecting cells of cerebral vessels, thereby enabling bacteria to cross the blood-brain barrier (the tight physiological barrier between brain and bloodstream) and infect the brain.
“We discovered a specific, unexpected mechanism by which a pathogen increases the life span of the cells it infects by specifically blocking an immune system function that is crucial for controlling infection,” says Marc Lecuit (Universit Paris Cit and Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital (AP-HP)), head of the Biology of Infection Unit at the Institut Pasteur (Universit Paris Cit, Inserm).
Hence, identifying and understanding the immune escape mechanisms of infected cells may help formulate new therapeutic strategies to prevent various similar infections and new immunosuppressive approaches for organ transplantation.
Source: Medindia
