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Listeria monocytogenes is a food pathogen. Mortality can affect up to 30% of listeriosis cases. European directives and good hygiene practices have significantly reduced the incidence of listeriosis in the world over the past two decades. However, certain foods contaminated by this pathogen are regularly removed from the market, recalled from the shelves or at the origin of cases of severe infections in humans.
UMR Oniris-Inra SECALIM has previously shown that certain strains of Carnobacterium were able to inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes in foodstuffs by secreting a bacteriocin. The unit has just shown that strains of Carnobacterium could also limit the invasion of epithelial cells by L. monocytogenes, an important step in the infection process in humans. The use of a mutant incapable of synthesizing bacteriocin allowed them to show that the role of bacteriocin was in fact very limited in reducing invasion and that another effect, called a protective effect, was to be found. origin of the significant decrease in invasion. This protective effect has also been verified on strains of Carnobacterium naturally not bacteriocinogenic.
C. divergens has recently been added to the list of microorganisms with a status of presumption of harmlessness recognized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and C. maltaromaticum is now one of the substances or extracts that can be added to foods without danger by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These bacterial species could then help reduce the risk of infections with L. monocytogenes as well as the use of antibiotics.
Partners: this work was carried out in collaboration with the University of Chemistry and Technology of Prague in Czech Republic during a PhD thesis co-supervised with the support of the Cost BacFoodNet (FA1202) and Prague University
Publication: Pilchová T, Pilet M-F, Cappelier J-M, Pazlarová J and Tresse O (2016) Protective Effect of Carnobacterium spp. against Listeria monocytogenes during Host Cell Invasion Using In vitro HT29 Model. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 6:88. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2016.00088