Gene discovers that he controls the most lethal foodborne infection in Europe



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With flu-like symptoms, this infection, which is treated with antibiotics and may take several months, "although unknown to most, has a very high mortality rate of about 20% ", he said. According to the research institute, pathogenic bacteria rely on a set of genes that determine their degree of pathogenicity, that is, their ability to infect successful host.

When they are "in an environment where they do not need these mechanisms of infection", they stay in the host environment, if they are inactive, but when they enter a new environment, like the human organism, "activate a set of regulatory chains at the genetic level to respond quickly to new conditions," informs the i3S

in this study, which gave Instead of an article published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, the team discovered that it is the gene called MouR that determines the pathogenicity of the bacterium 'Listeria monocytogenes', responsible for the listeriosis.

This gene is responsible for "radical adaptation of bacteria" to an organism that, in addition to triggering a set of mechanisms that allow them to deceive the immune system and stimulate the proliferative capacity of the bacteria at the ability to form biofilms in the human intestinal tract.

The researcher explained that when a bacterium comes into contact with the intestinal wall of the host, it adheres to the wall, constituting a community of bacteria playing different roles. "

Some of these bacteria are on the surface," to protect people inside the wall against the defense mechanism that normally exists in the intestine, which we call biofilm ". the environment, in contact with the human organism, the bacterium adapts and becomes "lethal pathogen, ready to overcome the hostile conditions of the digestive tract and invade our organism, beyond our defenses and barriers, "he adds.

According to i3S, poorly handled foods or unhealthy refrigerators are" the perfect source of contamination ", operating at greater risk.

" When a pregnant woman eats something that is contaminated by the bacteria, it goes directly to the placenta, where it causes an infection, which can often lead to abortion, "he said.

For this reason, did she continued, pregnant women should take care of the food, living products that have been manufactured for a long time or have not been properly cleaned before being eaten.

In Portugal, the last outbreak of declared listeriosis was in 2011, associated with the consumption of a specific cheese, which caused severe infections in 30 people, of whom 11 did not survive.

"The longest reported outbreak occurred in South Africa, leading to a thousand detected cases and 200 registered deaths," I3S said.

"The team has long sought to discover how Listeria acquires this pathogenicity and, in this work, we describe not only the regulatory element of the process as we characterize it structurally, opening doors to the design new therapeutic approaches "and" understanding of other infections, "said the researcher. ) {
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