Listeria

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Listeria is a bacterial genus containing six species. Named after the English pioneer of sterile surgery, Joseph Lister, Listeria species are Gram-positive bacilli and are typified by L. monocytogenes, the causative agent of listeriosis.

Listeria ivanovii is a pathogen of ruminants, and can infect mice in the laboratory, although it is only rarely the cause of human disease.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium commonly found in soil, stream water, sewage, plants, and food.^[1] Each bacterium is gram-positive and rod-shaped. Listeria are known to be the bacteria responsible for listeriosis, a rare but potentially lethal food-borne infection: the case fatality rate for those with a severe form of infection may approach 25%^[2] (Salmonella, in comparison, has a mortality rate estimated at less than 1%^[3]). They are incredibly hardy and able to grow in temperatures ranging from 4°C (39°F), the temperature of a refrigerator, to 37°C (99°F), the body's internal temperature^[1]. Furthermore, listerosis's deadliness can be partially attributed to the infection's ability to spread to the nervous system and cause meningitis.^[1] Finally, Listeria has a particularly high occurrence rate in newborns because of its ability to infect the fetus by penetrating the endothelial layer of the placenta.^[2] Vegetables can become contaminated from the soil, and animals can also be carriers. Listeria has been found in uncooked meats, uncooked vegetables, unpasteurized milk, foods made from unpasteurized milk, and processed foods. Listeria is killed by pasteurization and cooking. There is a chance that contamination may occur in ready-to-eat foods such as hot dogs and deli meats because contamination may occur after cooking and before packaging.1

Listeria uses the cellular machinery to move around inside the host cell: it induces directed polymerization of actin by the ActA transmembrane protein, thus pushing the bacterial cell around.

Listeria monocytogenes, for example, encodes virulence genes which are thermoregulated. The expression of virulence factor is optimal at 37 degrees Celsius and is controlled by a transcriptional activator, PrfA, whose expression is thermoregulated by the PrfA thermoregulator UTR element. At low temperatures, the PrfA transcript is not translated due to structural elements near the ribosome binding site. As the bacteria infects the host, the temperature of the host melts the structure and allows translation initiation for the virulent genes.

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive rod-shaped bacterium. It is the agent of listeriosis, a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacteria. The disease affects primarily pregnant women, newborns, and adults with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is a serious disease for humans; the overt form of the disease has a mortality greater than 25 percent. The two main clinical manifestations are sepsis and meningitis. Meningitis is often complicated by encephalitis, a pathology that is unusual for bacterial infections. Microscopically, Listeria species appear as small, Gram-positive rods, which are sometimes arranged in short chains. In direct smears they may be coccoid, so they can be mistaken for streptococci. Longer cells may resemble corynebacteria.   Flagella are produced at room temperature but not at 37°C. Hemolytic activity on blood agar has been used as a marker to distinguish Listeria monocytogenes among other Listeria species, but it is not an absolutely definitive criterion. Further biochemical characterization may be necessary to distinguish between the different Listeria species. As Gram-positive, nonsporeforming, catalase-positive rods, the genus Listeria was classified in the family Corynebacteriaceae through the seventh edition of Bergey's Manual. 16S rRNA cataloging studies of Stackebrandt et al. demonstrated that Listeria monocytogenes was a distinct taxon within the Lactobacillus-Bacillus branch of the bacterial phylogeny constructed by Woese. In 2001, the Famiiy Listeriaceae was created within the expanding Order Bacillales, which also includes Staphylococcaceae, Bacillaceae and others. Within this phylogeny there are six species of Listeria. The only other genus in the family is Brochothrix.

The majority of Listeria bacteria are targeted by the immune system before they are able to cause infection. Those that escape the immune system's initial response, however, spread though intracellular mechanisms and are therefore guarded against circulating immune factors (AMI).^[2]

To invade, Listeria induces macrophage phagocytic uptake by displaying D-galactose in their teichoic acids that are then bound by the macrophage's polysaccharide receptors . Other important adhesins are the internalins.^[3] Once phagocytosed, the bacterium is encapsulated by the host cell's acidic phagolysosome organelle.^[1] Listeria, however, escapes the phagolysosome by lysing the vacuole's entire membrane with secreted hemolysin,^[4] now characterized as the exotoxin listeriolysin O.^[1] The bacteria then replicate inside the host cell's cytoplasm.^[2]

Listeria must then navigate to the cell's periphery to spread the infection to other cells. Outside of the body, Listeria has flagellar-driven motility, sometimes described as a "tumbling motility." However, at 37°C, flagella cease to develop and the bacterium instead usurps the host cell's cytoskeleton to move.^[2] Listeria, inventively, polymerizes an actin tail or "comet" ^[4], using host-produced actin filaments ^[5] with the promotion of virulence factor ActA^[2]. The comet forms in a polar manner ^[6] and aids the bacteria's migration to the host cell's outer membrane. Gelsolin, an actin filament severing protein, localizes at the tail of Listeria and accelerates the bacterium's motility.^[6] Once at the cell surface, the actin-propelled Listeria pushes against the cell's membrane to form protrusions called filopods^[1] or "rockets". The protrusions are guided by the cell's leading edge ^[7] to contact adjacent cells which subsequently engulf the Listeria rocket and the process is repeated, perpetuating the infection.^[2] Once phagocytosed, the Listeria is never again extracellular: it is an intracytoplasmic parasite ^[4] like Shigella flexneri and Rickettsia.^[2]

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a list of foods that have sometimes caused outbreaks of Listeria: hot dogs, deli meats, raw milk, cheeses (particularly soft-ripened cheeses like feta, Brie, Camembert, blue-veined, or Mexican-style “queso blanco”), raw and cooked poultry, raw meats, ice cream, raw vegetables, raw and smoked fish and the green lip mussel.^[8]

The prevention of Listeria as a food illness involves effective sanitation of food contact surfaces. Alcohol has proven to be an effective topical sanitizer against Listeria. Quaternary ammonium can be used in conjunction with alcohol as a food contact safe sanitizer with increased duration of the sanitizing action. Nonflammable Alcohol Vapour in carbon dioxide NAV-CO2 systems or sodium hypochlorite are frequently used to sanitize surfaces to prevent Listeria. Refrigerated foods in the home should be kept below 4C to discourage bacterial growth.^[9] preventing listeria also can be done by carrying out an effecitve sanitation of food contact surfaces.

Listeria is an opportunistic pathogen: it is most prevalent in the elderly, pregnant mothers, and AIDS patients. With improved healthcare leading to a growing elderly population and extended life expectancies for AIDS patients, physicians are more likely to encounter this otherwise rare infection (only 7 per 1,000,000 healthy people are infected with virulent Listeria each year).^[1] Better understanding the cell biology of Listeria infections, including relevant virulence factors, may help us better treat Listeriosis and other intracytoplasmic parasites. Researchers are now investigating the use of Listeria as a cancer vaccine, taking advantage of its "ability to induce potent innate and adaptive immunity."^[5][10]

Antibiotics effective against Listeria species include ampicillin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, linezolid, azithromycin.

Intralytix, a Baltimore, Maryland-based biotechnology firm has created a product that combines six different bacteriophages and is applied to food and areas associated with food production. It has been shown to be effective in the elimination of listeria monocytogenes bacteria.

EBI Food Safety has created and put a similar product on the market, LISTEX P100. LISTEX P100 prevents listeria monocytogenes in food by using bacteriophages for killing listeria.^[11]

Wikispecies has information related to Listeria.

• 2008 Canadian listeriosis outbreak
• List of foodborne illness outbreaks

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16.Lin, C., K. Takeuchi, L. Zhang, C.B. Dohm, J.D. Meyer, P.A. Hall, and M.P. Doyle. 2006. Cross-contamination between processing equipment and deli meats by Listeria monocytogenes. Journal of Food Protection. 69:559-569.

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• About Listeria
• Snopes article about Listeria in Sara Lee products (December 1998)
• Public Health Agency of Canada on Listeria
• Listeria monocytogenes in food poisoning