Pathogenesis
Invasive infection by L. monocytogenes causes the disease listeriosis. When the infection is not invasive, any illness as a consequence of infection is termed febrile gastroenteritis. The manifestations of listeriosis include septicemia, meningitis (or meningoencephalitis), encephalitis, corneal ulcer, pneumonia, and intrauterine or cervical infections in pregnant women, which may result in spontaneous abortion (second to third trimester) or stillbirth. Surviving neonates of fetomaternal listeriosis may suffer granulomatosis infantiseptica — pyogenic granulomas distributed over the whole body — and may suffer from physical retardation. Influenza-like symptoms, including persistent fever, usually precede the onset of the aforementioned disorders. Gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, may precede more serious forms of listeriosis or may be the only symptoms expressed. Gastrointestinal symptoms were epidemiologically associated with use of antacids or cimetidine. The onset time to serious forms of listeriosis is unknown, but may range from a few days to three weeks. The onset time to gastrointestinal symptoms is unknown but probably exceeds 12 hours. An early study suggested that L. monocytogenes is unique among Gram-positive bacteria in that it might possess lipopolysaccharide, which serves as an endotoxin. Later it was found to not be a true endotoxin. Listeria cell walls consistently contain lipoteichoic acids, in which a glycolipid moiety, such as a galactosyl-glucosyl-diglyceride, is covalently linked to the terminal phosphomonoester of the teichoic acid. This lipid region anchors the polymer chain to the cytoplasmic membrane. These lipoteichoic acids resemble the lipopolysaccharides of Gram-negative bacteria in both structure and function, being the only amphipathic polymers at the cell surface.
L. monocytogenes has D-Galactose residues on its surface that can attach to D-Galactose receptors on the host cell walls. These host cells are generally M cells and Peyer's patches of the intestinal mucosa. Once attached to this cells, L. monocytogenes can translocate past the intestinal membrane and into the body.
The infective dose of L. monocytogenes varies with the strain and with the susceptibility of the victim. From cases contracted through raw or supposedly pasteurized milk, one may safely assume that, in susceptible persons, fewer than 1,000 total organisms may cause disease. L. monocytogenes may invade the gastrointestinal epithelium. Once the bacterium enters the host's monocytes, macrophages, or polymorphonuclear leukocytes, it becomes blood-borne (septicemic) and can grow. Its presence intracellularly in phagocytic cells also permits access to the brain and probably transplacental migration to the fetus in pregnant women. The pathogenesis of L. monocytogenes centers on its ability to survive and multiply in phagocytic host cells. It seems that Listeria originally evolved to invade membranes of the intestines, as an intracellular infection, and developed a chemical mechanism to do so. This involves a bacterial protein "internalin" which attaches to a protein on the intestinal cell membrane "cadherin". These adhesion molecules are also to be found in two other unusually tough barriers in humans — the blood brain barrier and the feto–placental barrier, and this may explain the apparent affinity that Listeria has for causing meningitis and affecting babies in-utero.
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