Researchers Discover How Listeria Survives Antibiotics
Researchers have uncovered how Listeria is able to so easily adapt to changes—a discovery that could lead to more effective ways of combating the disease.
In the lab, researchers monitored Listeria’s reaction to various substances that typically ward off pathogenic bacteria. Substances such as, bile, acid, salt, ethanol, and antibiotics were used during testing since the bacteria often encounters these substances during digestion.
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The results showed that Listeria cells produced unique RNA molecules after exposure to the substances, adapting quickly enough to the environmental encounter to repair themselves or avoid detection by the immune system all together.
“We see this production of RNA molecules only when Listeria is exposed to threatening substances in the lab. When there are no threats, Listeria does not produce them. This reveals part of the mechanism behind Listeria’s extreme adaptability”, said Birgitte Kallipolitis, PhD the study’s lead author and professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
“Only by looking at what the bacteria themselves do to survive, we can become better at fighting their pathogenicity”, she said.
Currently, Kallipolitis and colleagues are trying to determine if Listeria can be made harmless once the RNA molecules are removed.
The complete study is published in the July issue of Nucleic Acids Research.
-Michelle Canales
References:
Sievers S, Sternkopf EM, Jacobsen K, et al. A multicopy sRNA of Listeria monocytogenes regulates expression of the virulence adhesin LapB. Nucl. Acids Res. [epub ahead of print] 2014 July 17. doi: 10.1093/nar/gku630
Group Health Research Institute. Researchers discover why Listeria bacterium is so hard to fight. August 27, 2014. www.sdu.dk/en/Om_SDU/Fakulteterne/Naturvidenskab/Nyheder/2014_27_08_listeria. Accessed August 28, 2014.