Microbe Profile: Listeria monocytogenes: a paradigm among intracellular bacterial pathogens.

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne bacterial pathogen that is responsible for listeriosis, a disease characterized by occasional febrile gastroenteritis in immunocompetent individuals, abortions in pregnant women, meningitis in the newborn and fatal bacteraemia in immunocompromised individuals or the elderly. The ability of L. monocytogenes to produce disease is intimately associated with its potential to traverse several human barriers (including the intestinal, placental and blood/brain barriers), to promote its internalization within diverse populations of epithelial cells and to proliferate in the intra-ic environment while escaping host immune responses. L. monocytogenes is often regarded as a paradigm for intracellular parasitism.