Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Listeria monocytogenes is an intracellular foodborne pathogen of humans and animals for which there are indications of virulence differences among strains. Various virulence properties related to different phases of infection process were investigated in L. monocytogenes strains isolated from patients affected by haematological malignancies. In these isolates, besides to the clinical history, we analysed the haemolysin production, the survival to acidic pH, the ability to enter and proliferate in human intestinal-like and human macrophagic-like cells, as well as the allelic polymorphism of the actA gene involved in intracellular movement. A general heterogeneity in the virulence properties was detected which did not appear correlated with the clinical outcome of listeriosis but more probably was influenced by the status of the immune defence of the host.

Keywords

Listeria monocytogenes virulence haematological malignancies immunocompromised host °C. Longhi and M. Penta were equal contributors to this research

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

McLauchlin

1996. The relationship between Listeria and listeriosis. Food Control. 7:187.

Klastersky

1985. Infections in immunocompromised patients. I. Pathogenesis etiology, and diagnosis. Clin. Ther. 8:90.

Maijala

Lyytikainen

Johansson

Autio

Aalto

Haavisto

and Honkanen-Buzalski

. 2001. Exposure of Listeria monocytogenes within an epidemic caused by butter in Finland. Intern. J. Food Microbiol. 70:97.

Morra

Nosari

and Montillo

. 1999. Infectious complications in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Hematol. Cell Ther. 41:145.

Rocourt

1996. Taxonomy of the Listeria genus and typing of L. monocytogenes. Pathol. Biol. 44:749.

Schlech

W. F.

1996. Overview of listeriosis. Food Control. 7:183.

Louria

D. B.

Hensle

Armstrong

Collins

H. S.

Blevins

Krugman

and Buse

. 1967. Listeriosis complicating malignant disease: a new association. Ann. Intern. Med. 67:261.

Buchner

L. H.

and Schneier

S. S.

. 1968. Clinical and laboratory aspects of Listeria monocytogenes infection, with a report of ten cases. Am. J. Med. 45:904.

Long

S.G.

Leyland

M.J.

and Milligan

D.W.

. 1993. Listeria meningitis after bone-marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant. 72:537.

10.

Simpson

J.F.

Leddy

J.P.

and Hare

J. D.

. 1967. Listeriosis complicating lymphoma. Am. J. Med. 43:39.

11.

Tsiodras

Samonis

Keating

M.J.

and Kontoyiannis

D.P.

. 2000. Infection and immunity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Mayo Clin. Proc. 75:1039.

12.

De Pauw

B.E.

and Donnelly

J.P.

. 2000. Infections in the immunocompromised host: general principles. In Principles and practice of infectious diseases, vol. 2 Mandell

G. L.

Bennet

J.E.

and Dolin

, ed. p. 3079.

13.

Anaissie

Kontoyannis

D.P.

Kantarjian

Elting

Robertson

L.E.

and Keating

. 1992. Listeriosis in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were treated with fludarabine and prednisone. Ann. Int. Med. 117:466.

14.

Girmenia

Iori

A.P.

Bernasconi

Testi

A.M.

Moleti

M. L.

Arcese

and Martino

. 2000. Listeriosis in recipients of allogenic bone-marrow transplants from unrelated donors. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 19:711.

15.

Pron

Boumaila

Jaubert

Berche

Milon

Geissmann

and Gaillard

J. L.

. 2001. Dendritic cells are early cellular targets of Listeria monocytogenes after intestinal delivery and are involved in bacterial spread in the host. Cell. Microbiol. 3:331.

16.

Portnoy

D. A.

1994. Cellular biology of Listeria monocytogenes infection. In Molecular genetics of bacterial pathogenesis. Miller

V. L.

Kaper

J. B.

Portnoy

D. A.

and Isberg

R. R.

, ed. American Society for Microbiology Washington D.C., p. 279.

17.

Vàzquez-Boland

J. A.

Kuhn

Berche

Chakraborty

Domìnguez-Bernal

Goebel

Gonzàles-Zorn

Wehland

and Kreft

. 2001. Listeria pathogenesis and molecular virulence determinants. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 14:584.

18.

Wiedmann

Bruce

J. L.

Keating

Johnson

A. E.

McDonough

P. L.

and Batt

C. A.

. 1997. Ribotypes and virulence gene polymorphisms suggest three distinct Listeria monocytogenes lineages with differences in pathogenic potential. Infect. Immun. 65:2707.

19.

Gahan

C. G.

and Hill

. 1999. The relationship between acid stress responses and virulence in Salmonella typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes. Int. J. Food Microbiol. 50:93.

20.

de Chastellier

and Berche

. 1994. Fate of Listeria monocytogenes in murine macrophages: evidence for simultaneous killing and survival of intracellular bacteria. Infect. Immun. 62:543.

21.

Davis

M. J.

Coote

P. J.

and O'Byrne

C. P.

. 1996. Acid tolerance in Listeria monocytogenes: the adaptive acid tolerance response (ATR) and growth-phase-dependent acid resistance. Microbiol. 142:2975.

22.

Gahan

C. G.

O'Driscoll

and Hill

. 1996. Acid adaptation of Listeria monocytogenes can enhance survival in acidic foods and during milk fermentation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:3128.

23.

Brosch

Catimel

Milon

Buchrieser

Vindel

and Rocourt

. 1993. Virulence heterogeneity of Listeria monocytogenes strains from various sources (food, human, animal) in immunocompetent mice and its association with typing characteristics. J. Food Protect. 56:296.

24.

Del Corral

Buchanan

R. L.

Bencivengo

M. M.

and Cooke

P. H.

. 1990. Quantitative comparison of selected virulence associated characteristics in food and clinical isolates of Listeria. J. Food Protect. 53:1003.

25.

Rocourt

1994. Listeria monocytogenes: the state of the art. Dairy Food Environ. Sanitation. 14:70.

26.

Van Langendonck

Bottreau

Bailly

Tabouret

Marly

Pardon

and Velge

. 1998. Tissue culture assays using Caco-2 cell line differentiate virulent from non-virulent Listeria monocytogenes strains. J. Appl. Microbiol. 85:337.

27.

Norrung

and Andersen

J. K.

. 2000. Variations in virulence between different electrophoretic types of Listeria monocytogenes. Lett. Appl. Microbiol. 30:228.

28.

Wagner

Vàzquez-Boland

J. A.

Bubert

and Goebel

. 2001. In vitro and in vivo virulence heterogeneity in clinical Listeria monocytogenes strains. In Abstract of International Symposium on Problems of Listeriosis ISOPOL XIV. Mannheim/FRG, p. 73.

29.

Conte

M. P.

Petrone

Di Biase

A. M.

Ammendolia

M. G.

Superti

and Seganti

. 2000. Acid tolerance in Listeria monocytogenes influences invasiveness of enterocyte-like cells and macrophage-like cells. Microb. Pathog. 29:137.

30.

Dominguez Rodriguez

Vàzquez-Boland

J. A.

Fernandez Garayzabal

J. F.

Echalecu Tranchant

Gomez-Lucia

Rodriguez Ferri

E. F.

and Suarez Fernandez

. 1986. Microplate technique to determine haemolytic activity for routine typing of Listeria strains. J. Clin. Microbiol. 24:99.

31.

Conte

M. P.

Longhi

Petrone

Polidoro

Valenti

and Seganti

. 1994. L. monocytogenes infection of Caco-2 cells: role of growth temperature. Res. Microbiol. 145:611.

32.

Tsuchiya

Yamabe

Yamaguchi

Kobamyashi

Konno

and Tada

. 1980. Establishment and characterisation of a human acute monocytic leukemia cell line (THP-1). Int. J. Cancer. 26:171.

33.

Scorneaux

Ouadrhiri

Anzalone

and Tulkens

P. M.

. 1996. Effect of recombinant human gamma interferon on intracellular activities of antibiotics against Listeria monocytogenes in the human macrophage cell line THP-1. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 40:1225.

34.

Drevets

D.A.

1999. Dissemination of Listeria monocytogenes by infected macrophages. Infect. Immun. 67:3512.

35.

Farber

J.M.

and Peterkin

P.I.

. 1991. Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne pathogen. Microbiol Rev. 55:476.

36.

Brehm

Kreft

Ripio

M. T.

and Vàzquez-Boland

J. A.

. 1996. Regulation of virulence gene expression in pathogenic Listeria. Microbiol. 12:219.

37.

Conte

M. P.

Longhi

Polidoro

Petrone

Buonfiglio

Di Santo

Papi

Seganti

Visca

and Valenti

. 1996. Iron availability affects entry of Listeria monocytogenes into the enterocyte-like cell line Caco-2. Infect. Immun. 64: 3925.

38.

Conte

M. P.

Longhi

Petrone

Polidoro

Valenti

and Seganti

. 2000. Iron modulates act A gene expression in Listeria monocytogenes. J. Med. Microbiol. 49:681.

39.

Conte

M.P.

Petrone

Di Biase

A. M.

Longhi

Penta

Tinari

Superti

Fabozzi

Visca

and Seganti

. 2002. Effect of acid adaptation on the fate of Listeria monocytogenes in human macrophages activated by gamma interferon. Infect. Immun. 70:4369.

40.

Marron

Emerson

Gahan

C. G.

and Hill

. 1997. A mutant of Listeria monocytogenes LO28 unable to induce an acid tolerance response displays diminished virulence in a murine model. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:4945.

41.

Saklani-Jusforgues

Fontan

and Goossens

P. L.

. 2000. Effect of acid adaptation on Listeria monocytogenes survival and traslocation in a murine intragastric infection model. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 193:155.

42.

Tabouret

De Rycke

Audurier

and Poutrel

. 1991. Pathogenicity of Listeria monocytogenes isolates in immunocompromised mice in relation to listeriolysin production. J. Med. Microbiol. 34:13.

Heterogeneity of Virulence-Related Properties in Listeria Monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Patients with Haematological Malignancies

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References