The study, which was conducted on animals and published in the journal “Nature”, indicated that this mechanism “keeps cells alive for longer periods in the blood and makes them reach greater numbers in the brain.”
Listeria bacteria is the main cause of listeriosis, which is a rare food infection, with a few hundred infections recorded annually in France, but it is fatal in the event of infection, as it leads to the death of about a quarter of the infected.
One of the complications that leads to death is damage to the nerves, which results from the arrival of bacteria to the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.
The study, which was conducted on mice in several stages and reflected the progression of the disease in humans, showed that Listeria is transmitted to the brain through mononuclear cells, a type of white blood cell.
The researchers discovered how these infected cells reached the brain without being eliminated by the immune system, to show that a protein present in Listeria protected the bacteria.
This protein, called “InlB”, contributed to the passage of infected cells under the control of T lymphocytes, whose role is to destroy cells infected with a virus or bacteria.
The study concluded that this process “creates a protective environment for infected cells that promotes the spread and survival of Listeria” in the body.
Not only did this process pass Listeria into the brain, it also gave the bacteria time to survive in the gut and in the stool, allowing the bacteria to stay more in the body and continue to spread.
The bacteria’s modus operandi surprised the researchers, who did not expect Listeria to neutralize T lymphocytes in this way.
In a statement to the Pasteur Institute, to which the study’s authors belong, and the Inserm Institute, Marc Locoy, a researcher who led the study, said that the action of bacteria represents “a specific and unexpected process by which the pathogen increases the life of the cells that infect it.”
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