Editor's Summary

17 January 2008

Listeriosis: trouble in store

The bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is a common a cause of infection in immunocompromised individuals and in pregnancy. It multiplies rapidly in the cytosol of infected cells, but was recently found in intracellular vacuoles in a mouse model of the disease. A closer study of these vacuoles in mice during persistent listeriosis reveals them as sites of comparably slow bacterial replication which may promote bacterial survival in the face of the host immune response.

Letter: Listeriolysin O allows Listeria monocytogenes replication in macrophage vacuoles

Cheryl L. Birmingham, Veronica Canadien, Natalia A. Kaniuk, Benjamin E. Steinberg, Darren E. Higgins & John H. Brumell

doi:10.1038/nature06479

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