A plea for listeriosis research

Abstract

Although listeriosis does not represent a major health problem, it has evoked the interest of many different disciplines in medical and biological science. Historically, there are two roots for this development: Seeliger's extensive description of the bacteriological and clinical features of listeriosis in man and animals (1) made microbiologists as well as medical microbiologists aware of the particular role of Listeria monocytogenes. Another important milestone in listeriosis research was Mackaness' description of the role of cell-mediated immunity against infection with L. monocytogenes (2). His studies opened a new field of immunological research contributing markedly to our present understanding of the role of the various T-lymphocyte subsets (3) and the HLA-restriction of the immune response (4). In the last few years a true renaissance of interest in listeriosis can be observed among clinicians, since the disease is becoming more and more frequent, at least in certain parts of the world. This may be due to altered environmental conditions, to modified nutritional fashions or to an increased susceptibility of hosts to infection with L. monocytogenes. Since the antibiotic therapy of listeriosis, especially in a compromised host, does not provide satisfactory results, listeriosis is a true challenge for clinicians. The possibility of differentiating several distinct species among the genus Listeria in the routine laboratory (5) has opened new prospects for the medical microbiologist. The exact identification of an isolate is indispensable for prognosis, since the various species differ considerably in their pathogenic potency. Molecular biologists have just begun to identify the relevant virulence factors of pathogenic and non-pathogenic listeriae. The following contributions by several experts in the quite different fields of listeriosis research presented at a meeting in Rothenburg o. T./FRG on April 29/30, 1987 will provide a review of the present situation in this area of the life sciences. The generous sponsorship of Bayer AG, Leverkusen, FRG has helped to make this project possible. Herbert Hof, Jocelyne Rocourt, Walter Marget