Listeria’s Deadly Path from Gut to Brain

Amid an ongoing multi-state Listeria outbreak linked to prepared pasta meals that has led to hospitalizations and fatalities , understanding how this pathogen operates inside the human body is more critical than ever. Listeria monocytogenes is a formidable foodborne bacterium responsible for the serious infection listeriosis . While it may only cause mild gastroenteritis in healthy individuals, it poses a grave threat to pregnant women, the elderly, and the immunocompromised, resulting in an invasive form of the disease with high hospitalization and mortality rates. The remarkable pathogenicity of L. monocytogenes lies in its sophisticated ability to not just invade our cells, but to hijack their very machinery, enabling it to cross the body’s most protected barriers, the intestine, the pl