AUTHOR=Tsai Yu-Huan , Chen Wei-Lin 

TITLE=Host Lipid Rafts as the Gates for Listeria monocytogenes Infection: A Mini-Review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01666

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2020.01666

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Listeria monocytogenes</italic> is a Gram-positive foodborne bacterial pathogen capable of interacting and crossing the intestinal barrier, blood–brain barrier, and placental barrier to cause deadly infection with high mortality. <italic>L. monocytogenes</italic> is an intracellular pathogen characterized by its ability to enter non-phagocytic cells. Expression of the cytolysin listeriolysin O has been shown to be the main virulence determinant <italic>in vitro</italic> and <italic>in vivo</italic> in mouse models. <italic>L. monocytogenes</italic> can also perform cell-to-cell spreading using actin-rich membrane protrusions to infect neighboring cells, which also constitutes an important strategy for infection. These events including entry into host cells, interaction between listeriolysin O and host plasma membrane, and bacterial cell-to-cell spreading have been demonstrated to implicate the cholesterol-rich lipid rafts or molecules in these microdomains in the host plasma membrane <italic>in vitro</italic> with tissue culture models. Here we review the contribution of lipid rafts on plasma membrane to <italic>L. monocytogenes</italic> infection.</p>